ABSTRACT
Title of dissertation:
THE MAINSTREAM OUTSIDER: NEWS MEDIA
PORTRAYALS OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
MITT ROMNEY AND HIS MORMONISM, 2006-2008.
Lane Daniel Williams, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011
Dissertation directed by:
Professor Katherine C. McAdams
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
This study examines how news media framed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
and his Mormonism during his unsuccessful quest for the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination. The study's central finding is that, in the aggregate, news accounts framed
Mormonism as outside the American religious and cultural mainstream. This framing
emerged as part of campaign’s “horse-race” coverage, which focused on who was ahead
in the nomination race, who was behind and why. That coverage naturally highlighted
aspects of Mormonism that caused Romney electoral problems. Journalists zeroed in on
the church's history of polygamy, on whether the church is a Christian faith and on
current church beliefs that may appear outside the mainstream. Basic beliefs that
Mormons share with other American faiths, such as helping the poor, were mentioned,
but less frequently. Romney himself was framed as a generally mainstream candidate
whose central problem was his faith. This dissertation also describes how news media
relied heavily on an analogy between Romney’s struggle to overcome his “Mormon
problem” and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy’s struggle to overcome antiCatholic sentiments in 1960. Implications of these conclusions are discussed for
candidates of other minority religions and further research is suggested. The study
proposes a “horse-race influence model” that highlights a candidate’s weaknesses,
providing voters with reasons to vote against a candidate, which is reflected in the next
set of horse-race coverage polls. Horse-race coverage, therefore, may create a feedback
loop that increasingly harms a candidate’s chances. Quantitative findings are based on a
content analysis of 205 news articles that appeared in eight prominent American news
outlets between January 2006 and Romney’s withdrawal from the race in February 2008.
Articles in the sample mentioned Mormonism at least four times and Romney at least
once. The content analysis obtained a mean intercoder reliability of .84.
THE MAINSTREAM OUTSIDER: NEWS MEDIA PORTRAYALS OF
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MITT ROMNEY AND HIS
MORMONISM, 2006-2008.
by
Lane Daniel Williams
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2011
Advisory Committee:
Associate Professor Katherine C. McAdams, Chair
Professor Emerita Maurine H. Beasley
Professor Carl Sessions Stepp
Professor Christopher Foreman
Dr. John Thomas
© Copyright by
Lane Daniel Williams
2011
Dedication
To my children, Ethan, Sophie, Isaac, and Adam:
May this be an example of how to work and of how to show faith.
To Laurie:
You are the reason being Mormon means so much to me.
ii
Acknowledgements
A study like this cannot be done without the help of scores of people. They need
thanks here. I mention by name only a few. I start with the dedicated perseverance of my
first adviser, Dr. Christopher Hanson at the University of Maryland, who stuck with me
through false starts and mixed methods and took me under his wing when others were
unable to do so. He helped me avoid this study being an apologetic. His comments were
helpful and generous.
Second, I acknowledge the faithfulness of Dr. Katherine McAdams, who helped
me finish this project after unusual difficulties.
Next, I thank two people at the University of Maryland who greatly influenced
my thought and career: the late David Broder, whose classes I helped teach and who
provided confidence and a lifetime of memories, and the late Dr. Michael Gurevitch,
whose discussions helped me understand communication in life. Both are giants who
made my life better.
I also thank the other gracious members of my committee, Dr. Maurine Beasley,
Professor Carl Sessions Stepp, Dr. Christopher Foreman and Dr. John Thomas. Dean
Thomas Kunkel was kind to me, as was Associate Dean Chris Callahan, both of whom
have since moved on in their academic careers. My doctoral cohort provided friendship
and inspiration. Other scholars, especially Dr. Geoffrey Layman, Dr. Daniel Stout and
Dr. Craig Johnson, were very helpful in my analyses and in providing direction.
Members of the Mormon Media Studies group – including Dr. Sherry Baker and Dr. Bill
Silcock – were deeply appreciated for their kindnesses. Numerous scholars, including
Dr. Maxwell McCombs, Dr. John Durham Peters, Dr. David Mindich, Dr. Jan Shipps, Dr.
iii
Terryl Givens, Dr. Richard Bushman, Dr. Dan Stout and writer Jonathan Rauch provided
much inspiration, sometimes in personal ways. Givens and Peters are likely my
intellectual idols in the way they have applied Mormonism to a broader world.
In their roles as graduate co-ordinators, Drs. Linda Steiner and Carol Rogers,
helped me immensely. Caryn Taylor and Bernie Gormally at Maryland and Phyllis
Thompson at BYU-Idaho were immensely helpful. I thank my editor Margaret
Wimbourne.
My biggest readers were a nuclear engineer, Dr. Wade Williams, and a retired
military chaplain, Lt. Col. Paul Williams, my brothers. Their faithful readings and
helpfulness go beyond measure. I do not think I could have reached this point without
their help. My brother Mark Williams and my sister Mary Bennett provided faithfulness
and belief in me. The weeks in Mark and Linda’s basement were a godsend.
I would thank many at BYU-Idaho, first of all, my colleague Eric Embree who
volunteered to code and my dean, Robyn Bergstrom, for her support. My department
chairs Ron Bennett and Mike Cannon remain some people that I nearly idolize. Adam
Bair’s last minute help was a godsend. For the hours of commiseration, I thank Joel
Judkins, Henry J. Eyring, Mike Cannon, Brent Bean, Brian Howard, Ric Page, Lee
Warnick, Marc Skinner, Andra Hansen, Fenton Broadhead and all the rest who continued
to believe in my ability when I began to doubt. The full administration believed in this
faculty member. I am deeply grateful for what they did for me.
Then, of course, the many librarians – notably my dear friends Shane Cole and
Brooks Haderlie and Robyn Holderman – at BYU-Idaho, who helped me find solutions
and find books and resources to conduct this study.
iv
Special thanks need to go to my friend Steve Anderson, whose story about getting
back on a horse was life-changing in the context of his remarkable example. He is dear
to me. I credit his example for helping to change my life. My old friend, J.D. Cook,
deserves thanks just for answering several phone calls.
As a Mormon, I stand grateful to divine help for being able to find the strength to
finish. I sensed answered prayers in many moments.
I thank my family. My father has been gone for many years, but I save his bow
tie for the day I finally finish this project because I wish to honor his devotion to family
and to education. My mother died during the middle of this project. Her 30+ years of
being a widow and of encouraging a college education and religious devotion are a
legacy of sacrifice and love I cannot repay. My four children, Ethan, Sophie, Isaac and
Adam, who was born and grew to school during these years, provided the inspiration to
continue, the patience to believe and the love to make it all worthwhile.
Lastly, to Laurie, my wife. There is no way I can tell her how grateful I am for
her long patience these years. I love her with all my heart. She is my all-in-all.
v
Table of contents
Dedication
ii
Acknowledgements
iii
Table of Contents
vi
List of Tables
vii
List of Figures
x
Chapter 1: Introduction and Background
1.1 Introduction: The problem and its scope.
1.2 Background: Romney’s campaign
1.2.a Romney’s Qualifications and Background
1.2.b Polls
1.2.c Early campaign coverage
1.2.d Ames Straw Poll
1.2.e Mike Huckabee’s Surge
1.2.f The “Faith in America” Speech
1.2.g Huckabee’s Question
1.2.h The Iowa Caucuses
1.2.i The New Hampshire Primary
1.2.j South Carolina and Nevada
1.2.k The Death of Gordon B. Hinckley and Florida
1.2.l Super Tuesday
1.2.m Campaign Post-mortems
1.3 Mormonism and the Study
1
1
6
7
10
12
19
22
23
28
29
32
33
35
37
38
40
Chapter 2: Review of the Literature
2.1 Historical Church and State Background
2.2 Framing Presidential Politics, Media and Religion
2.2.a The Role of Religion in Presidential Politics
2.2.b Journalistic Challenges in Covering Religion
2.2.c The Challenge of Writing about Mormonism
2.3 Questions for the Present Study
45
45
58
67
78
84
95
Chapter 3: Design for the Present Study
96
Chapter 4: Research Findings
4.1 Data Summary
4.2 Study Questions and Findings
105
105
108
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Suggestions
134
vi
5.1 Responses to the Study’s central questions
5.2 Study Conclusions
5.3 Religion and Horse-race coverage
5.4 Depictions of Mormonism
5.5 The Kennedy Analogy
5.6 How this Study Applies to Candidates of Minority Religions
5.7 Suggestions for Further Research
5.8 Conclusion
134
135
144
163
172
177
179
183
Appendices
Appendix A: Codebook
187
Appendix B: Analysis of Intercoder Reliability
200
Appendix C: Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” Speech
206
Appendix D: Analysis of the Influence of the Coverage
215
Appendix E: Examples of Secrecy Framing in the Coverage
220
Appendix F: Mormonism in Coverage of Mitt Romney’s first two Campaigns in
Massachusetts
228
Appendix G: Results from a Preliminary Assessment Comparing Mormonism in
Mitt Romney’s campaign coverage with George Romney’s
Campaign in 1968.
238
Appendix H: Historical Presidential Campaigns and Religion.
241
Appendix I: Mormons who Ran for President
255
Appendix J: The Historical Relationship between Mormons and the News Media
277
Appendix K: Mormon Beliefs
302
Works cited and sourced
311
vii
List of Tables
Table number
4.1
Name
Number of articles by source type.
Page
105
4.2
Number of articles by source.
105
4.3
Number of articles with Romney focus.
106
4.4
Number of opinion or news articles by category.
106
4.5
Number of articles by story topic.
107
4.6
Number of articles by month.
107
4.7
Percentage of articles with helps dimensions by source.
110
4.8
Percentage of articles with hinders dimensions by source.
115
4.9
Total frequency of dimensions helping and hindering Romney’s chances.
116
4.10
Frequency of stories with preponderance of helping or hindering dimensions,
Mormonism included.
117
4.11
Frequency of stories with preponderance of helping of hindering dimensions,
Mormonism not included.
117
4.12
Number of stories saying Romney was suffering setbacks between Dec. 2 and
Dec. 6, 2007 in the coverage that focused on Romney speech.
120
4.13
Number of stories saying Romney was suffering setbacks in the coverage that
focused on Romney speech during the entire scope of the study.
120
4.14
Percentage of stories where various Mormon dimensions appeared by source.
121
4.15
Percentage of stories where various Mormon dimensions appeared by source.
122
4.16
Number and percentage of articles that contained the word “cult” in
connection with Mormonism.
123
4.17
Mean of articles’ Likert score assessments of Romney’s views being in the
political mainstream.
128
4.18
Mean of articles’ Likert score of Mormonism being in the religious
mainstream.
128
4.19
Comparisons to Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaign where religion was
mentioned.
129
4.20
Average number of favorable/mainstream dimensions of Mormonism and
average number of unfavorable/idiosyncratic dimensions of Mormonism per
story by story type.
131
4.21
Frequency of articles with greater proportions of helping dimensions,
hindering dimensions, or neither by story type.
131
4.22
Average number of dimensions seen helping Romney’s chances or hindering
his chances at election by story type, NOT including Mormonism.
132
4.23
Percentage of articles with overall assessment of Romney’s campaign success,
by story type.
132
4.24
Percentage of articles with study dimensions by story type.
132
4.25
Percentage of Mormon dimensions by story type.
133
viii
5.1
Favorable/mainstream and Unfavorable/idiosyncratic dimensions of
Mormonism used in calculating whether stories had more
favorable/mainstream dimensions or more unfavorable/idiosyncratic beliefs.
137
5.2
Percentage of stories that contained any part of the index “Mormons are good
people” by story focus.
140
5.3
Number and percentage with dimension of the index “Mormons are good
people.”
140
5.4
Frequency of articles using synonyms of unusual to describe Mormons or
Mormonism by article source.
166
B.1
Summary of Intercoder Reliability.
200
B.2
Difference in means for the Likert scale evaluations of whether Mormonism
was portrayed as in the religious mainstream.
203
B.3
Summary of intercoder reliability calculations for 11 variables that were
recoded.
205
E.1
Qualitative examples of secrecy present in the coverage of Mitt Romney and
his Mormonism.
220
G.1
Selected specifics of Mormonism in the coverage of Mitt Romney.
238
G.2
Selected specifics of Mormonism in the coverage of George Romney.
239
ix
List of Figures
Figure number
4.1
Name
Percentage of stories with dimensions that were helping Romney’s
chances of winning.
4.2
Percentage of stories that had at least one dimension that was helping
Romney to win.
109
4.3
Percentage of stories that contained at least one dimension that was
viewed as helping Romney to win – besides Mormonism.
109
4.4
Percentage of stories with specific dimensions hindering Romney’s
chances of winning.
111
4.5
Percentage of stories with any dimensions hindering Romney’s chances
of winning.
114
4.6
Percentage of stories with specific dimensions hindering Romney’s
chances of winning – not including Mormonism.
114
4.7
Mormonism as a hindrance, over time.
116
4.8
Percentage of stories with more helping or hindering dimensions or
neither, excluding Mormonism.
117
4.9
Percentage of articles showing whether Romney was succeeding, was
suffering setbacks, or was “neutral,” neither suffering setbacks nor
succeeding on balance.
118
4.10
Running average over time of whether Romney is succeeding or
suffering setbacks.
119
4.11
Percentage of stories with various Mormon dimensions.
121
4.12
Presence of Dimension: Mormons may or may not be Christian over
time.
126
4.13
Frequency of mentions of whether a story mentioned polygamy or not in
the coverage of Mitt Romney.
127
4.14
Number of mentions of candidates before 2008 for whom religion
wasn’t mentioned but whose candidacy was compared with Mitt
Romney’s 2008 campaign.
130
5.1
Percentage of articles where there were more favorable/mainstream,
more unfavorable/idiosyncratic dimensions or an equal number of those
dimensions.
137
5.2
Percentage of articles that have the any part of the index “Mormons are
good people.”
139
5.3
Time sequence of when Mormonism was described as a hindrance for
Mitt Romney in the coverage.
143
5.4
Horse-race influence model.
147
x
Page
108
Chapter 1: Introduction and background.
1.1 Introduction: The problem and its scope.
This study examines the news media coverage of the minority religious beliefs of
a mainstream presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who
emerged as a strong contender for the Republican nomination when he ran for president
in 2007.1 Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He is a Mormon, and he ran at a time when as many as one in five voters (depending on
the survey) said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who practiced
Mormonism.2 Such attitudes provided difficult challenges for both Romney and for
reporters writing about the campaign. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has
had a long and often painful relationship with the news media over its 180-year history.
Stereotyping and misunderstanding dominated media portrayals of the Mormons for
much of the church’s early history, when coverage often included an on-going focus on
the practice of polygamy, which the church abandoned more than a century ago.3 Today,
Mormons comprise roughly 6 million Americans, fewer than one in 50, many of whom
live in the American West.4 The Romney campaign brought the coverage of the Mormon
1
See, for example, Sridhar Pappu, “The Holy Cow Candidate,” Atlantic Monthly,
September 2005, at: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200509/pappu, accessed May 11,
2009; John J. Miller, “Matinee Mitt. The governor of Massachusetts may soon be
appearing in a (political) theater near you,” National Review online, December 14, 2005,
under John J. Miller, NR National Political Reporter, at
http://old.nationalreview.com/miller/miller200512141539.asp, accessed September 2,
2010.
2
See chapter 2 for a discussion about the surveys.
3
See Appendix J for an overview of Mormons’ relationship with the news media
including detailed notes.
4
Interview with Dr. John Thomas, August 31, 2011.
1
faith into renewed focus. This study’s central purpose is seeing how reporters met the
challenge of presenting fair and balanced coverage of a candidate’s religion.
Romney launched his campaign in an era when religion played an important and
controversial role in the U.S. and in its politics and also during a time when questions of
religion and politics face renewed scrutiny. This study comes during an era when political
reporters were said to carry the important task of helping voters sort out presidential
candidates’ qualifications and character.5
That perhaps one in five voters wouldn’t vote for a Mormon constituted a
legitimate reason to write about Mitt Romney’s religion in the campaign, but there were
others. Mormonism has a complex theology that remains controversial in some circles.
Mormon theology is difficult to convey simply to an audience, many of whom say they
depend upon the news media for their ideas about Mormonism.6 In covering Romney’s
faith, news reporters faced an important religious controversy: Evangelical Christians, an
important voting bloc in Republican primaries, and Mormons disagree on the meaning of
Christianity and on many other points of doctrine.
This study looks at how reporters met the challenge of covering Mormonism and
other obstacles facing this otherwise mainstream candidate. How did reporters frame
Romney’s chances? Was he seen as succeeding or suffering setbacks? What traits of his
Mormonism were used to describe his religion? Did reporters revert to old stereotypes
5
For a further discussion of this issue, see chapter 2, especially of Thomas E. Patterson,
Out of Order: An incisive and boldly original critique of the news media’s domination of
America’s political process. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1993).
6
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life; Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
“Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism,” survey, September 25, 2007,
question 33, 48, 56 survey conducted by Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas, under
publications at http://pewforum.org/surveys/religionviews07/, accessed March 9, 2009.
2
such as the long-abandoned practice of polygamy in describing his faith? What facets of
his character and personality were highlighted? Was he seen as a candidate holding
mainstream political views? Was his religion seen as mainstream? To whom did
reporters compare Romney in evaluating his chances of dealing with religion in the
campaign? Were there important differences between opinion and news coverage? These
questions inspired the present study.
This study aims to provide a clearer understanding of how reporters dealt with
this challenge of covering the minority faith and the election chances of a generally
mainstream candidate during an election. It used a content analysis of more than 200
articles from eight leading news outlets with national and regional scope that appeared
from Jan. 1, 2006, through Feb. 10, 2008. Each article mentioned the word “Mormon” or
something similar, like “Mormonism” at least four times and Romney at least once. The
central research question was: What frames were evident in the coverage of Mitt Romney
and his religion during the 2008 campaign?
An important reason to look at the Romney campaign was to try to understand
how the traditional framing of political reporting as a horse race shaped the coverage of a
minority religion. In an era where scholars at Pew and elsewhere suggest that horse-race
framing is growing in political journalism, an understanding of some of the potential
consequences of that framing is useful.7 Horse-race journalism, the idea goes, focuses on
the ups and downs of politics, the winners and losers, and the polls rather than on the
issues surrounding governance and proposed policies. The study asks how a minority
7
Katherine Q. Seelye, “2008 coverage focuses on the horserace,” New York Times,
October 29, 2007, under The Caucus Blog, at
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/2008-coverage-focuses-on-the-horserace/, accessed September 21, 2010.
3
religion might interact with a focus on horse-race polling and coverage. Perhaps, in a
horse-race setting, decreased rankings or success may have suggested wide discomfort
with a religion, prompting reporters to explain what it is about that religion that makes it
idiosyncratic. This study is a first of its kind in bringing the factor of religion into the
discussion of horse-race journalism and its influence on political campaigns. In an era of
growing religious diversity in the United States, Mitt Romney will not be the last person
from a minority religion to seek the presidency, suggesting that this study will be of great
interest to those who might seek the presidency in the future.
A second reason for the study is its timeliness. At the time of this writing in 2011,
Mitt Romney was running again for the 2012 nomination, so a review of how the news
media covered him and his religion can provide insight for those interested in the 2012
campaign. In addition, there is a second Mormon, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman,
who is also widely considered a top-tier potential Republican candidate for the 2012
nomination. Political commentator Glenn Beck and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid
also share Romney’s faith, so regardless of the outcome of the 2012 elections, Mormons
appear likely to remain prominent in the national dialogue for many years to come. A
study that helps reporters understand Mormon beliefs and how they figure in the mix of
politics and journalism is timely and important.
For those interested more in Mormonism itself, the Romney campaign coverage
also comprised one of the longest sustained media discussions of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in at least a century since Mormon apostle Reed Smoot faced
three years of Congressional hearings about Mormon influence before being allowed to
4
take his seat in the U.S. Senate.8 The campaign coverage presented a unique opportunity
to gauge how Mormonism itself is framed during the first decade of the 21st century in
contrast with the historic framing of the faith.9 How does recent coverage frame
Mormonism in terms of a religious mainstream? How does Mormonism appear to fit into
the national discourse today? Given that at least one study has shown that religious
doctrine is rarely discussed in the news media, how do reporters handle the tough
intellectual world of doctrinal difference?10 How do they provide insight into the
coverage of religion generally?
This study also brings an analysis of the historical framing of other presidential
campaigns into the analysis of contemporary campaign coverage. The study asks an
important question: to whose campaign should Mitt Romney’s campaign be compared?
The role that historical campaigns play in the framing of a presidential candidate in the
news media is also an important question and a new line of inquiry introduced by this
study.
Three of the most powerful forces in American politics converged in the
candidacy of Mitt Romney in 2007 and 2008 – the forces of presidential elections, of the
news media and of religion. Romney’s religion provided a unique way of understanding
8
See Appendix J for a discussion with references to this issue. See also the discussion of
Mormonism in the campaign of George Romney in 1968 and other Mormon candidates
in Appendix I.
9
2008 marked an important year for Mormon coverage. Not only was Mitt Romney’s
faith a major news story, a raid on a polygamist compound run by a break-off of
Mormonism in Texas dominated headlines a few months later and Mormon church
members officials proved influential in the passage of California’s gay marriage
Proposition 8.
10
Center for Media and Public Affairs Media Monitor, “The Media Get Religion.
National Media Coverage of Religion in America 1969-1998,” May/June 2000, 3, at
http://www.cmpa.com/files/media_monitor/00mayjun.pdf, accessed August 8, 2011.
5
how these forces interact in early 21st century America. On Dec. 6, 2007, Romney
delivered one of the most important speeches of the entire campaign season, “Faith in
America,11” a speech widely compared with John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to the
Greater Houston Ministerial Association. Romney’s speech and the coverage it produced
generated a national dialogue about the role of religion in politics and of America’s
relationship to religion. Assessing some of the media’s response to that discussion, as this
study does, is also important.
1.2. Background: Romney’s Campaign
Willard Mitt Romney’s campaign for the presidency formally began on Feb. 13,
2007, less than a month after he left office as governor of Massachusetts. Dressed
conservatively in a blue suit, white shirt and blue tie, he took to a podium in the Henry
Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. A white Nash Rambler – made famous by his late
father’s work at American Motors – and a Ford Hybrid SUV bracketed him as he
formally announced his campaign for the presidency in 2008. Romney’s father served as
president of American Motors and later as the popular Republican governor of the state,
so it was natural that Mitt Romney started his campaign in Dearborn. The setting
highlighted Romney’s personal success story. “Throughout my life, I have pursued
innovation and transformation,” he told the audience.12
The announcement speech formally began an intense presidential run that ended in
11
See Appendix C for a full text of the article. (Nearly a quarter of the coverage in the
study’s story population focused on this speech.)
12
Chris Cillizza, “Analyzing Mitt Romney’s Announcement Speech,”
Washingtonpost.com The Fix blog, under “The Fix,”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2008/analyzing-mitt-romneysannounc.html, accessed August 11, 2010.
6
failure 360 days later. The Romney campaign seemed for a time to have a serious chance
at victory in the Republican primaries, but the candidate fell short in the first rounds of
caucus and primary contests across the country in the winter of 2008. John McCain, the
Arizona senator, captured the hotly contested nomination.
Thousands of articles appeared that mentioned Mitt Romney and his Mormon
religion. Between January 2006 and February 2008, nearly 1,600 articles mentioned
Romney and Mormonism as determined by searches of the Lexis-Nexis database for
major news sources. Nearly 1,000 appeared in the Associated Press, the New York Times,
the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek coverage of that time
period. Google searches for the search string “Romney and Mormon” have resulted in
more than 1 million hits.13 A Pew study suggested that 50 percent of all stories involving
religion in the presidential campaign during 2007 were about Mitt Romney’s
Mormonism.14
1.2.a Romney’s Qualifications and Background.
Before serving as governor of Massachusetts, Romney had a long record of
personal, business and political achievement. He graduated from Harvard with both a law
degree and an MBA. He worked for Bain Management in Boston, where he became
CEO. He founded Bain Capital, an investment firm and became a multimillionaire. It
13
Michael Tackett, “Mormon Mission,” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 2007, 24.
14
The controversy and speech involving Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, may
have received more coverage during 2008. See Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life,
“Running on Faith. Study finds media coverage of religion in the primary campaign
rivaled the coverage of race and gender combined,” analysis July 10, 2008, under politics
and elections, at http://pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Running-on-Faith.aspx,
accessed September 2, 2010. This study uses a different methodology than the Pew
study, so its numbers aren’t in perfect agreement, though its trends are the same.
7
was with this image of a successful innovator that he hoped to take to the White House.
Evaluations of Romney’s time as governor were mixed, but he succeeded in
resolving the state’s budget woes without income tax increases, in passing a healthcare
bill and in dealing with the scandal- and accident-plagued Big Dig tunnel project in
Boston.15 When the Massachusetts Supreme Court came out in favor of same-sex
marriage during his tenure, Romney became one of the nation’s leading opponents of
same-sex marriage, working to overturn and to limit the ruling’s scope. He was also “the
rare Massachusetts pol to act correctly in one of the state’s worst political scandals,” by
forcing Billy Bulger out as president of the University of Massachusetts.16 One facet of
Romney’s record was that during his years as governor, he had changed positions on
important issues such as abortion and gay rights, critics said. These changes were to
become an important part of the coverage of Mitt Romney during the presidential
campaign. In a front-page article in the Washington Post, political reporters Dan Balz
and Shalaigh Murray wrote,
As he prepares for a 2008 presidential campaign, Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has championed the conservative principles that
guided President Ronald Reagan, become an outspoken opponent of samesex marriage and supported overturning the Supreme Court decision that
legalized abortion.
It was not always so. Twelve years ago, Romney boasted that he
would be more effective in fighting discrimination against gay men and
15
Christine McConville and Hillary Chabot, “Brother: Matt Amorello’s fall linked to Mitt
Romney’s gall,” Boston Herald, under local coverage at
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100811brother_matt_amorellos_fall
_linked_to_mitt_romneys_gall/srvc=home&position=also, accessed August 11, 2010.
16
Whitey Bulger, an organized crime figure, and his brother Billy, the long-time
president of the Massachusetts Senate, comprise one of the biggest on-going scandals in
Massachusetts history that allegedly included protection of organized crime figures and
sending the wrong people to jail. See, Debra Saunders, “Whitey, Billy and Mitt,”
Creator’s Syndicate, http://www.creators.com/conservative/debra-saunders/whitey-billyand-mitt.html, accessed August 11, 2010.
8
lesbians than Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), distanced himself from
some conservative policies of the Reagan administration, and proudly
recalled his family’s record in support of abortion rights.
The apparent gulf between the candidate who ran for the Senate in 1994
and the one getting ready to run for president has raised questions as to
who is the real Mitt Romney. Is he the self-described moderate who
unsuccessfully challenged Kennedy in the year of the Republican
landslide, the self-described conservative now ready to bid for the
Republican presidential nomination in 2008, or merely an ambitious and
adaptable politician? The answer could be crucial to Romney’s
presidential ambitions.17
Before leaving office, pundits began touting Romney as a potential Republican
candidate for the presidency. Columnist George F. Will seems to have been the first to
publicly recognize Romney’s potential as a presidential candidate when he highlighted
Romney in a 2004 column, just after George W. Bush won re-election.18 Quickly,
Romney’s Mormonism became a primary concern for writers and pundits speculating on
Romney’s potential bid. In 2005, Amy Sullivan, a writer for Washington Monthly,
explained why Mormonism was a major news story, asserting that many evangelical
Christians, a major bloc in the Republican Party, disliked Romney’s Mormon faith,
thinking it was outside the religious mainstream. She wrote,
Some of this anti-Mormonism is a fairly fuzzy sort of bias, based
mostly on rumors and unfamiliarity and the vague feeling that Mormons
are kind of weird.
… The first time I ever heard about Mormons was in fifth grade,
sitting in a basement classroom of my Baptist church, watching a filmstrip
about cults. Our Sunday school class was covering a special month-long
unit on false religions; in the mail-order curriculum, Mormonism came
17
Dan Balz and Shalaigh Murray, “Mass. Governor’s Rightward Shift Raises Questions,”
Washington Post, December 21, 2006, under Political Browser at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122002046.html, accessed December 23, 2010.
18
George Will, “Mitt Romney for President?” December 16, 2004, at the Pittsburgh
Tribune, http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_283684.html, accessed August
10, 2009. Will mentioned Romney’s Mormonism, but only in the sense of calling him
devout.
9
somewhere between devil worshippers and Jim Jones. Although most of
the particulars are lost to me now, one of the images remains in my mind:
a cartoon of human figures floating in outer space (an apparent reference
to the Mormon doctrine of ‘eternal progression’) that appeared on the
screen next to our pull-down map of Israel. Even at age 10, the take-away
message was clear. Mormons were not like us. They were not Christian.19
Other articles, including a profile of Romney in the Atlantic in 2005, portrayed
him as presidential material – with Mormonism being his biggest potential liability.20 On
June 6, 2005, the Weekly Standard, a leading, agenda-setting conservative magazine,
wrote a detailed piece about Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith called, “In 2008, Will it
Be Mormon in America?”21
1.2.b Polls
Numerous polls suggested that Romney would have a hard time winning based
upon his Mormon beliefs. The numbers varied but were consistent in showing that
overcoming perceptions of Mormonism would be a challenge for Romney:22
• An ABC News/Washington Post poll in June 2007 found that nearly 50 percent
said there was no chance they would vote for a Mormon for president.23
19
Amy Sullivan, “Mitt Romney’s Evangelical Problem,” Washington Monthly,
September 2005, at
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.sullivan1.html, accessed May
11, 2009.
20
Sridhar Pappu, “The Holy Cow Candidate,” The Atlantic Monthly, September 2005, at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200509/pappu, accessed May 11, 2009.
21
Terry Eastland, “In 2008? Will it Be Mormon in America?” The Weekly Standard, June
6, 2005, at
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/672kwvro.asp?pg
=1, accessed August 10, 2009.
22
For another example of this variability, see sidebar in Howard Burkes, “Faith Could be
a Hurdle in Romney’s White House Bid,” NPR.org, under Election 2008, at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7245768, accessed March 16,
2011.
10
• A second ABC poll in July showed that 34 percent of Americans were at least
somewhat uncomfortable with a Mormon running for president.24
• A CNN survey in October 2007 showed that 19 percent of voters would be less
likely to vote for a Mormon and 3 percent said it would make them more likely.25
• Working for Fox News, Opinion Dynamics asked respondents if they thought
Americans generally – not themselves specifically – would be comfortable with a
Mormon as president, and 50 percent said No.26 Another Opinion Dynamics poll for Fox
showed that only 39 percent knew that Romney was Mormon, however.27
• New York Times writer Laurie Goodstein suggested that about one in four voters
wouldn’t vote for a Mormon and one in three Republicans wouldn’t do so.28
It is hard to know exactly why the data diverged so markedly; although questionwording and the timing of the polls could be reasons for some of the inconsistency. Also,
at points in the campaign, people may have known Romney was Mormon and equated
their opposition to voting against a Mormon with their opposition to Romney. However,
given the polling data, it is no surprise that Mormonism and worries about it became
central to the national discussion of Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. The
conversation was so frequent online that a Google search more than a year after Romney
dropped out of the campaign showed that the search string Romney and Mormon brought
23
ABC News poll June 2007.
24
ABC News poll July 2007.
25
Opinion Research Center survey
26
Opinion Dynamics survey October 11, 2007
27
Opinion Dynamics survey May 17, 2007
28
Laurie Goodstein, “A Mormon’s Ultimate Doorbell,” The New York Times, December
9, 2007, Section 4, 1.
11
back nearly 600,000 hits.29 One news report suggested that, at one point, more than 1.2
million hits returned on a Google search for that search string.30 Among the leading
national news outlets that comprise part of this study – The Associated Press, Washington
Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek – the words “Romney”
and “Mormon” appeared in nearly 800 total articles between January 2006 and early
2008, when Romney dropped out of the race.31 Introductory campaign biographies in
these and other news outlets made Mormonism a primary way of framing Mitt Romney
and his campaign challenges, setting up continuing coverage of “the Mormon issue” for
the campaign.32 So, by the time Romney formally announced in Michigan in February
2007, it was clear that the media would write about his religion among other campaign
topics.
1.2.c Early campaign coverage
Despite early horse-race polling showing that Romney had little name recognition
nationally and that he faced concerns about his Mormonism, he quietly began achieving
success. He spent heavily on advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire, gaining traction
there. On March 4, he won the Conservative Political Action Committee’s straw poll,
outpolling New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the national frontrunner at the time, 21
29
Search conducted May 11, 2009
30
Michael Tackett, “Mormon Mission,” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 2007, 24.
31
This was from a series of searches of Lexis/Nexis and Proquest using AP’s state and
regional wire and these other national media sources..
32
Important news outlets with articles on the topic include American Spectator, Boston
Globe, Slate, New Republic, Newsweek, Time, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, NPR,
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor and Real Clear Politics.
12
percent to 17 percent.33 He demonstrated immediate success in raising money. The first
quarter of 2007, he was the leading Republican fundraiser, raising more than $20 million,
but the coverage included frequent mentions of Romney’s reliance on a network of
wealthy Mormons and Utahans for some of his fund-raising success.34 Shortly thereafter,
a much-discussed two-part PBS documentary on Mormonism kept the Romney-Mormon
connection alive.35 And, in the New York Times that April, Ken Woodward (whose
coverage of religion for Newsweek since 1964 makes him an influential religion reporter)
wrote an op-ed that laid groundwork for much of the coverage that followed. Throughout
his campaign, Mitt Romney had chosen to say little about his Mormon beliefs – a practice
he began in 1994 during his run for the U.S. Senate. But, in his op-ed piece, Woodward
said Romney needed to speak out:
Although with 5.6 million adherents Mormonism is the nation’s
fourth-largest denomination, 57 percent of respondents to a recent CBS
poll said they know little or nothing about Mormon beliefs and practices.
Mr. Romney needs to be their teacher, whether he likes that role or not.36
As Romney’s campaign for the nomination gathered speed, many pundits said his
biggest challenge would be to win the allegiance of conservative evangelicals who play a
powerful role in Republican presidential nominating contests, and who sometimes regard
Mormonism with suspicion or as outright heresy. Romney began an intense effort to
33
Michael D. Shear, “Romney Wins Conservatives’ Straw Poll. Giuliani, Brownback
Next in CPAC Vote,” Washington Post, March 4, 2007.
34
Jim Kuhnhenn, “Romney helps tap new donors using Mormon, business connections,”
Associated Press, April 18, 2007.
35
Neil Genzlinger, “Modern-Day Look at History of the Latter-day Saints,” New York
Times, April 30, 2007.
36
Kenneth Woodward, “The Presidency’s Mormon Moment,” New York Times, April 9,
2007, A17.
13
cultivate the evangelicals and convince them he shared their essential values. For
instance, on May 5, 2007, Romney gave the commencement address at Regent
University, the school founded by the evangelical Rev. Pat Robertson. It was his second
visit to the school in four months. He gave a speech about the breakdown of the family
and about the evils of pornography and violence.37 Some coverage of the speech led with
the fact that Romney “did not discuss his Mormon faith,” emphasizing his silence about
his Mormonism. 38 Several news outlets reported that Romney’s visit caused such a stir
within the campus community that Robertson met with student leaders uncomfortable
with a Mormon speaking on campus.39
On May 7, 2007, the Rev. Al Sharpton, while debating atheist Christopher
Hitchens at the New York Public Library about the existence of God, said, “As for the
one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him
anyways, so don’t worry about that; that’s a temporary situation.”40 Two days later,
Romney issued a statement saying Sharpton’s comments could be construed as bigoted.
By choosing to pick a fight with Sharpton, whose own complaints of bigotry had recently
37
Perry Bacon Jr., “Romney Reaches to the Christian Right. In a Conservative Crowd,
Candidate Talks About Marriage, Child-Rearing,” Washington Post, May 6, 2007.
38
In his op/ed, Woodward specifically suggested Romney use the platform of the Regent
University speech to describe Mormonism. See also, Bacon, “Romney Reaches to the
Christian Right.”
39
Scott Helman, “Romney’s visit stirs debate at Christian university,” Boston Globe,
May 6, 2007.
40
Jennifer Dobner, “Sharpton tours Mormon HQ in Utah after comment about Romney,”
Associated Press, May 22, 2007. See also, Michael D. Shear, “Romney and Sharpton
Clash Over Mormonism,” Washington Post, May 10, 2007, A08; Michael Luo, “Romney
Accuses Sharpton of a Bigoted Remark,” New York Times, May 10, 2007, A29.
14
forced radio talk-show host Don Imus off his nationally syndicated show,41 Romney
quickly turned a discussion of his Mormonism into one about bigotry. Sharpton
responded that he had been misinterpreted and that he had no beef with Mormons.
Sharpton visited Salt Lake City on May 21 and met with church officials. Sharpton
toured church facilities that provide welfare assistance to the poor, thereby providing an
opportunity for the church to get some positive coverage of its commitment to good
works.42
Evangelical critics occasionally made news by attacking Romney’s religion during
the summer of 2007, but he dismissed them as bigots. Florida televangelist Bill Keller,
for instance, told his audience of more than 2 million in June that:
… having Romney as president is no different than having a
Muslim or Scientologist as president. I’ll stay home and not vote before I
will vote for Satan, since if you vote for Romney, you are voting for
Satan!43
The Romney campaign responded that “it shows that bigotry from time to time still
41
In April 2007, Imus called the women of the Rutgers’ Women’s basketball team
“Nappy-headed hos.” The racially charged remark led to Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse
Jackson and others meeting with Imus employer, CBS. One week after his comment,
Imus was fired by CBS. See, Judy Taber “CBS fires Don Imus over racial slur,” April
12, 2007, CBS News, under New York, at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/12/national/main2675273.shtml, accessed
March 14, 2011.
42
Romney’s decision to accuse Sharpton of a bigoted remark suggested some savvy or
cynicism. Christopher Hitchens often argued against Mormonism with more vigor than
Sharpton, but in making Sharpton the subject of his attacks, Romney was able to make
the discussion about bigotry – after Sharpton’s attacks on other political commentators in
2007. If he had picked Hitchens, Hitchens’ strident anti-Mormonism may have gained
greater attention. A bigotry frame seemed to be the best counter-frame to deal with
attacks on Romney’s religion.
43
Mitch Stacy, “Florida evangelist criticized for anti-Romney rants,” Associated Press,
June 7, 2007.
15
rears its ugly head in society.”44
A restaurant patron drew headlines on May 29, 2007, when he refused to shake
Romney’s hand because of his Mormonism.45 Romney made no response.
In June 2007, Romney complained that operatives in other campaigns were stirring
up anti-Mormon sentiments. One example of this was when a volunteer with the McCain
campaign named Chad Workman allegedly questioned whether Mormons were Christian.
In an anonymous report of a campaign meeting, Workman was said to have referenced an
article that said Mormons supported the militant group Hamas, and that associated their
treatment of women with the Taliban. When questioned by the AP, Workman declined
comment. McCain’s campaign apologized for the alleged remark on June 22, 2007.46
At the time, Romney appeared to be effectively brushing off these attacks.
Contributions rolled in, his organizations in key primary and caucus states grew and
looked formidable, advertisements filled the airways, and his standing in the polls began
to rise. The Washington Post’s Dan Balz said polls had him leading in New Hampshire,
and his success in Iowa forced national rivals John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani out of
early tests of campaign strength there so they would avoid embarrassing defeats. On
44
Ibid. The Associated Press reported on June 6, 2007, that the secular, liberal Americans
United for the Separation of Church and State asked the Internal Revenue Service to
investigate Keller’s tax-exempt status. The Romney campaign made no comments on the
proposed investigation, but news outlets reported in June 2008 that Keller ultimately
came under investigation; see Laurie Goodstein, “Challenging the I.R.S.,” The New York
Times Caucus Blog, June 23, 2008, under The Caucus, at
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/challenging-the-irs/, accessed March 14,
2011. It is unclear what the results of this investigation were.
45
Associated Press, “Restaurant patron criticizes Romney over Mormon faith,” May 29,
2007.
46
Brock Vergakis, “Romney: Repeated campaign attacks on Mormon religion troubling,”
Associated Press, June 23, 2007; Amy Lorentzen, “McCain apologizes after alleged
criticism of Mormon faith,” Associated Press, June 22, 2007.
16
June 25, Balz wrote that Romney looked strong.47
Romney was looking strong in part because Arizona Sen. John McCain’s campaign
appeared to be in serious trouble., Long considered one of the likely front-runners,
McCain, who finished second to George W. Bush in 2000, had led a long, controversial,
and ultimately unsuccessful effort to enact immigration reform, which had drained his
time and energy and set back his campaign fund-raising. McCain was so strapped for
cash that he decided to minimize efforts in Iowa, focusing instead on the New Hampshire
primary. By July 3, 2007, McCain was acknowledging his weakness and lack of funds.
He laid off dozens of campaign staff and rumors began swirling that he might be forced
to drop out of the race.48
Emerging as the GOP leader in national opinion polls was former New York
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, still remembered as the stalwart face of a city under attack on
9/11.49 But his national popularity was almost irrelevant, given the socially conservative
voters he had to court in GOP primaries. Giuliani’s pro-choice abortion views and his
messy divorce made it unlikely that he would appeal to conservative Republicans in early
states. Giuliani focused his strategy on winning the seventh contest, the Florida primary,
where many transplanted New Yorkers might give him an edge. He hoped a victory in
Florida would provide momentum for victory in following primaries and caucuses on
47
Dan Balz, “Romney Gains Credibility In Early Primary States. Push in Iowa, N.H. Puts
Him in Top Tier,” Washington Post June 25, 2007.
48
Carl Hulse and Adam Nagourney, “Short on Money, McCain campaign dismisses
dozens,” New York Times, July 3, 2007.
49
Luo, Michael, “God ’08: Whose, and how much, will voters accept?” New York Times,
July 22, 2007, Section 4, 4; Michael Cooper and Meghan Thee, “McCain defeats
Romney in Florida Vote,” The New York Times, January 30, 2008, under Politics, at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/us/politics/30florida.html, accessed March 21,
2011.
17
“Super Tuesday,” a week later, when 19 states would hold primaries or caucuses. In
other words, Giuliani would have just seven days to raise money and mount campaigns
all over the country. His chances seemed slim.
It seemed Romney would be tough to beat. His strategy was to roll over Giuliani
in the early primaries and slug it out with McCain. Glen Johnson of the Associated Press
wrote a story quoting Republican operatives saying Romney had positioned himself as
the Republican front-runner with a well-thought-out strategy in the key early states. 50
However, he overlooked former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a candidate who
had raised little money and did not seem like a serious national player. But Huckabee
was focusing on Iowa, quietly playing his guitar in small settings, talking about his
proposals for a fair tax, and building an organization of evangelical Christians determined
to stop Mitt Romney. Huckabee’s biggest natural advantage for capturing the Iowa
caucuses was his religion. Huckabee was (and is) an evangelical Southern Baptist,
former television minister and former president of the Arkansas State Baptist
Association.51 The Iowa caucuses had an unusually large number of evangelical
participants.52 Huckabee built his organization under the radar of national news media,
which continued to treat him as a minor player through much of the summer. That
changed on Aug. 11 with the Ames Straw Poll, a quadrennial, non-binding vote and fundraiser at the Hilton Coliseum at the campus of Iowa State University in Ames. More than
50
Glen Johnson, “Romney uses early electioneering in early voting states,” Associated
Press, June 17, 2007.
51
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/about-mike-huckabee, accessed August 12, 2010.
52
New York Times analysis of the election at http://politics.nytimes.com/electionguide/2008/results/states/IA.html, accessed August 12, 2010.
18
14,000 participants, many bused from around the state by candidates’ organizations,
descended on the coliseum to cast their ballots.53
1.2.d Ames straw poll
It was a hot, sunny Saturday in Ames. Voters poured into the coliseum. Romney
supporters handed out yellow T-shirts and red foam baseball “Mitts.”54 Huckabee’s
people gave out water bottles,55 while their candidate played rock ‘n roll with a powder
blue-clad Elvis impersonator.56 “You are witnessing a miracle. The dead has risen,”
Huckabee said. Pundits expected Romney to win easily, in part because McCain and
Giuliani were effectively skipping the event. 57 In fact, Romney did win twice as many
votes as the second-place finisher, Huckabee, who gained a great deal of favorable
publicity. The New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney wrote that Huckabee was now
seen as successful. One reputable Iowa blogger at Iowapolitics.com wrote that it was
more of a “sigh of relief than a victory shout” for Romney. 58 The big winner was
53
“Detailed Results,” Iowa politics blog: Ames Straw Poll blog,” August 11, 2007, under
August 11, 2007 at http://strawpoll.iowapolitics.com/, accessed August 17, 2010.
54
Adam Nagourney, “Romney praises Bush, sort of,” New York Times Caucus Blog,
August 11, 2007 under The Caucus, at
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/romney-praises-bush-sort-of/, accessed
August 17, 2010.
55
“Straw poll pics,” Iowa politics blog: Ames Straw Poll blog,” under August 14, 2007,
http://strawpoll.iowapolitics.com/ August 14, 2007, accessed August 12, 2010.
56
Michael Luo, “Rock ‘n Roll Huckabee,” New York Times Caucus Blog, August 11,
2007 under The Caucus, at http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/rock-n-rollhuckabee/, accessed August 17, 2007.
57
Adam Nagourney and Michael Luo, “Romney Pushed on Conservative credentials,”
The New York Times, August 10, 2009, under politics, at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/us/politics/10romney.html?_r=1, accessed March
14, 2011.
58
“Instant Analysis,” Iowa politics blog: Ames Straw Poll blog,” August 11, 2007, under
August 11, 2007, http://strawpoll.iowapolitics.com/, accessed August 12, 2010.
19
Huckabee, whose surprise showing allowed him to begin raising the money he needed to
compete. Evangelical Christians, who polls showed were slow to warm to Romney,
McCain and Giuliani, would no longer move to Romney as their default candidate, as
Romney’s strategy hoped they would. Instead, they could support Mike Huckabee, a
like-minded evangelical to support.
Romney continued building his campaign that summer, and Mormon stories
percolated into fall 2007. Not long after the Ames Straw Poll, writers asked about the
influence a movie would have on campaign coverage, perhaps because the Romney
campaign coincided with the 150th anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in Mormon
history – the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The massacre occurred in southwest Utah on
Sept. 11, 1857, where Mormon settlers brutally massacred 120 unarmed immigrants. A
low-profile movie recounting the incident called September Dawn came out in August
2007. Starring Jon Voight, the movie was linked to the Romney campaign. Both the L.A.
Times and the Washington Post ran features about the film and the event. The Post,
relying on the Religion News Service, said of the film, “The depictions stand to forge
new impressions of a controversial religious minority that has known both violent
persecution and substantial influence across its tumultuous 180-year history.”59
The AP reported briefly that Romney had no plans to see the movie.60 The movie
got a rare zero out of four stars from leading critic Roger Ebert whose website,
rogerebert.com, called it a “strange, confused, unpleasant movie.” The movie received
59
G. Jeffrey MacDonald, “Debating History: Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?”
Religion News Service in Washington Post, April 28, 2007, B9.
60
Brendan Riley, “Romney won’t see new movie about dark chapter in Mormon
history,” Associated Press, August 23, 2007.
20
other poor reviews,61 did poorly and was generally forgotten. It dropped from coverage
quickly.
In October 2007, Romney received the endorsement of Bob Jones III, the
chancellor of evangelical Bob Jones University, named for the chancellor’s grandfather.
Jones made it clear, however, that he opposed the Mormon religion.62 Then on Nov. 9,
2007, John McCain’s 95-year-old mother said Mormons were to blame for the 2002
Olympics scandal. She said, “As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he’s a Mormon and the
Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal.” Romney’s campaign accused the
McCain camp of disparaging Romney’s faith. John McCain said his mother’s views and
his weren’t necessarily the same.63 Later that month, in New Hampshire and Iowa,
journalists reported that voters there received anti-Romney “push-polling” phone calls
that brought unusual Mormon beliefs into the coverage:
The survey asked “whether a resident knew that Romney was a
Mormon, that he received military deferments when he served as a
Mormon missionary in France, that his five sons did not serve in the
military, that Romney’s faith did not accept blacks as bishops into the
1970s and that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the
Bible.”64
61
These assertions are based largely upon a quick perusal of the Internet Movie database
and Wikipedia, which linked to Ebert’s quote. Wikipedia also links, since broken, to a
Robert Novak column, who evidently speculated that September Dawn was an attempt by
Hollywood to influence the election, an assertion denied by its director. Rottentomatoes
gave it a 13 percent rating with its consensus being that it had “jarring editing, a dull love
story and silly dialogue” that made for a banal movie.
62
Glen Johnson, “ Romney embraces Jones endorsement despite anti-Mormon views,”
Associated Press, October 25, 2007.
63
Associated Press, “McCain’s mom says Mormons to blame for the Salt Lake City
scandal,” November 9, 2007.
64
Philip Elliott, “NH, Iowa voters get anti-Romney calls,” Associated Press, November
16, 2007.
21
Coverage of the polling continued for several days. The calls seemed to ask
questions about McCain that cast him in a favorable light, but the McCain camp
denounced the survey and asked for an attorney general investigation. News outlets
reported that Western Wats, a Utah-based polling firm, was behind the poll and campaign
finance disclosures suggested that Western Wats was working for Rudy Giuliani. The
company ultimately denied the claim, saying it never does push-polling but sometimes
engages in legitimate message-testing surveys.65
1.2.e Mike Huckabee’s surge
The facts in Iowa were changing as Mike Huckabee quietly built on his perceived
success at the Ames Straw Poll. The race changed most markedly after Huckabee began
running a new advertisement in Iowa on Nov. 26. In it, Huckabee sits wearing no tie
casually smiling, looking into the camera with a breezy, sunny picture of the rich farm
countryside behind him. He tells the audience that he doesn’t have to wake up every day
deciding what he believes in. The ad was clearly directed at Mitt Romney’s reputation
for changing positions. The ad showed Huckabee walking along with a farmer as the
words “Christian Leader” appeared on the screen.66
Two days later, Michael Luo of the New York Times, reported Romney’s lead was
dwindling in Iowa: “The religious divide over Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith that his
supporters had long feared would occur is emerging in Iowa as he is being challenged in
state polls by Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor who has played up his faith in his
65
See, for example, Michael Finnegan, “N.H. probe targets poll on Romney: At issue is
whether the survey tried to plant negative information. McCain and other rivals deny
involvement,” Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2007, A14.
66
“Believe,” Mike Huckabee campaign commercial, under explorehuckabee, at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjtGgfhKIvo, accessed October 11, 2010.
22
bid for the Republican presidential nomination.”67
On Dec. 1, Luo further highlighted the religion issue when he described a debate
exchange for Romney where someone asked him if he believed the Bible, every word,
and Romney seemed to hesitate before saying he did. Mormonism believes the Bible to
be the word of God but only insofar as the translation is correct, a position rejected by
other religions.68 Late the next day following months of intermittent speculation, Romney
made the biggest decision of his campaign – to give a speech on religion.69
1.2.f The “Faith in America” speech.
On Dec. 6, 2007, George H.W. Bush rose to podium, told the audience that he
wasn’t endorsing Romney, told them of his respect for Romney’s father and then
introduced the former governor. Romney, wearing a blue tie, spoke for about 20 minutes
on live television; delivering a speech he called “Faith in America.”70 His speech carved
out a conservative view of the role religion plays in American politics – that religion is
necessary for successful democracy. He also built the speech around the idea of a public
67
Michael Luo, “In Iowa, Mormon Issue Is Benefiting Huckabee,” New York Times,
November 28, 2007.
68
Michael Luo, “Mormons and Bible, Every Word,” New York Times, December 1,
2007.
69
Two examples of his decision process from the Associated Press include: Glen
Johnson, “Romney says he will address his religion if he goes national,” Associated
Press, May 3, 2006. Eight months before he began his campaign, Johnson writes that
Romney envisioned delivering a Kennedy-esque speech to explain the natural curiosity
surrounding his faith. A second example is Philip Elliott, “Romney says advisers oppose
him giving a speech on Mormon faith,” Associated Press, November 10, 2007. In the
article, Romney said, “I’m happy to answer questions about my faith and do so pretty
regularly. … Is there going to be a special speech at some point? Perhaps. I sort of like
the idea myself. The political advisers tell me no, no, no. It draws too much attention to
that issue alone.”
70
For a full text of the speech, see appendix C.
23
religion that includes all Americans without regard to specific creeds. He assured
Americans that he would neither take direction from any religious authority nor renounce
his faith: “I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith
of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs. Some believe that such a
confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it.”
Romney told his audience that he believed Jesus Christ was his savior but went no
further, saying that to discuss his faith “would enable the very religious test the founders
prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith.
For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.” Romney
praised religious diversity – America’s “symphony of faith,” and suggested that all
religions share a similar moral code that should guide the country’s actions. Media
compared Romney’s speech to Presidential candidate John Kennedy’s 1960 address,
which had been aimed at putting to rest anti-papist sentiments, including the notion that
Kennedy, as a Catholic, would be answerable to the Pope. Kennedy’s speech argued in
favor of a tight separation of church and state. Romney’s view was more circumscribed,
suggesting that religion needs a place in the public arena while still maintaining some sort
of separation.
He next struck out a position in America’s culture war, saying essentially that
secularism has replaced religion in some quarters:
We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good
reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere
with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the
separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its
original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any
acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with
no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new
religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.
24
The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but
they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public
square. We are a nation “Under God” and in God, we do indeed trust.
We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders – in
ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in
the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes
and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. Our greatness
would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith
upon which our Constitution rests. I will take care to separate the affairs of
government from any religion, but I will not separate us from “the God
who gave us liberty.”
Romney continued, praising the ideal of shared religious liberty, noting times when
religious liberty was not preserved in America, including the story of his own Mormon
pioneers. He quoted scriptural injunctions to care for the poor and needy and said it is a
principle that guides his life and his family.
He added to his praise of diversity with this thought:
I’m not sure that we fully appreciate the profound implications of
our tradition of religious liberty. I have visited many of the magnificent
cathedrals in Europe. They are so inspired ... so grand ... so empty. Raised
up over generations, long ago, so many of the cathedrals now stand as the
postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too “enlightened” to
venture inside and kneel in prayer. The establishment of state religions in
Europe did no favor to Europe’s churches. And though you will find many
people of strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering
away.
He condemned religious theocracy and religious violence, then concluded with a
story of the Continental Congress coming together to pray as a symbol of national unity.
Romney made an argument in a time of uncertainty about the role of religion in
American politics and culture, themes that underline this study. Romney’s speech fit well
within the long tradition of American public religion and of Alexis de Tocqueville’s view
25
that religion helps serve as a necessary check on morals in society.71 Its argument that
freedom requires religion was especially striking.
Immediately after the speech, commentators of all sorts weighed in. Some, like
conservative former speechwriter Peggy Noonan, praised the speech:
Mr. Romney gave the speech Thursday morning. How did he do?
Very, very well. He made himself some history. The words he said
will likely have a real and positive impact on his fortunes. The speech’s
main and immediate achievement is that foes of his faith will now have to
defend their thinking, in public. But what can they say to counter his highminded arguments? “Mormons have cooties?”72
Others criticized the speech. Steven Chapman, a libertarian, of the Chicago
Tribune wrote:
Mitt Romney is worried about religious intolerance. He fears
religious and nonreligious people will unite to punish him because of his
Mormon faith. He thinks it would be much more in keeping with
America’s noblest traditions if Mormons and other believers joined
together to punish people of no faith.
On Thursday, Romney showed up at the George H.W. Bush Library
in College Station, Texas, to announce that even if it costs him the White
House, his Mormonism is non-negotiable. That came as a relief to those
who suspected he would defuse the issue by undergoing a Methodist
baptism.73
The speech also brought unusually detailed explanations of Romney’s faith into the
71
His work seemed influenced by Jon Meacham’s book, American Gospel. Jon
Meacham, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.
(New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006). See also, Elizabeth Holmes,
“Romney to Take on Issue of Faith – Vaguely; Speech Aims to Ease Uncertainty Over
Mormonism and to Sway Evangelicals,” Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2007.
72
Peggy Noonan, “Declarations: Mormon in America,” Wall Street Journal, December 8,
2007, W13.
73
Steve Chapman, “Romney flunks a Religious Test,” Chicago Tribune, December 9,
2007, 11.
26
news. Jennifer Dobner’s AP story tried to explain Mormon doctrine to her readers.74
Although the reaction to the speech’s content was mixed, the reaction to the
strategic success of the speech appears to have been guarded at best. In some ways,
reporters at national papers seemed to avoid the underlying question of whether it
changed opinions about Mormonism. Articles, for example, were rare that mentioned the
Dec. 11 Gallup Poll saying that the percentage who wouldn’t vote for a Mormon hadn’t
moved.75 David Broder wrote, ”Whether Romney has been able to diffuse the suspicion
of his Mormonism among the fairly large number of Americans who apparently regard it
as a cult that is alien to their own religious background is beyond my capacity to
judge.”76
In a blog posting, Dan Balz of The Washington Post, also wrote guardedly:
His advisers argued that he [Romney] had taken a big subject (and
an obvious political problem) and dealt with both in a ways that spoke
broadly to the country. In that sense, the Romney team saw the speech as
mission accomplished and they now await the verdict. Whether he has
overcome the doubters or the skeptics will not be clear until voters in Iowa
and South Carolina and other states begin to weigh in next month.77
74
Jennifer Dobner, “Theology, doctrine, at root of evangelical-Mormon divide,”
Associated Press, December 6, 2007.
75
Lydia Saad, “Percentage Unwilling to Vote for a Mormon Holds Steady. 18% of
Republicans would not support a Mormon presidential nominee,” Gallup news service,
December 11, 2007, under Gallup, at http://www.gallup.com/poll/103150/percentageunwilling-vote-mormon-holds-steady.aspx, accesed March 15, 2011.
76
Broder, “Like father, Like son. How the Romneys handled the religion question,”
Washington Post, December 9, 2007, B07.
77
Dan Balz, “DAN BALZ’S TAKE. With His Message Delivered, Romney Awaits
Verdict,” blog posting, Washington Post, under The Trail, at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2007/12/06/post_229.html, accessed March 15,
2011.
27
Two regional newspapers said directly that the speech had failed strategically.
Dahleen Glanton and Margaret Ramirez of the Chicago Tribune wrote on December 9:
“Though Romney’s speech was intended to win the trust of evangelicals, most leaders
said their attitudes about Mormonism were unlikely to change.”78
Miguel Bustillo, Stephanie Simon, Mark Z. Barabak of the Los Angeles Times
made a similar assessment in a front-page article:
The glowing reviews began tumbling in at once: Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech on faith was powerful and
convincing, analysts said – sincere, effective, hit all the right notes. But
will it help Romney, a Mormon, win over the key voting bloc of
conservative Christians? The broad consensus: probably not.79
1.2.g Huckabee’s Question
A new controversy about Mormonism emerged a few days later. On Dec. 16, 2007,
the New York Times Magazine published a profile of Mike Huckabee and his growing
success as candidate. In it, author Zev Chafets said he was asking Huckabee whether he
thought Mormonism was a cult or a religion and Huckabee said it was a religion. Then,
Chafets said, “I was about to jot down this piece of boilerplate when Huckabee surprised
me with a question of his own: ‘Don’t Mormons,’ he asked in an innocent voice, ‘believe
that Jesus and the devil are brothers?’” 80 The question became the subject of columns,
sometimes critical of Huckabee. Romney criticized Huckabee, and Huckabee apologized
78
Dahleen Glanton, Margaret Ramirez, “Romney a hard sell for evangelicals,”
Chicago Tribune, December 9, 2007, 16.
79
Miguel Bustillo, Stephanie Simon, Mark Z. Barabak, “Evangelicals may never take
Romney on faith; A defense of religious liberty may not quell doubts about his beliefs,”
Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2007, 1.
80
Zev Chafets, “The Huckabee Factor,” New York Times Magazine, December 12, 2007,
at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/magazine/16huckabee.html?pagewanted=print,
accessed August 11, 2009.
28
a couple of days later personally to Romney, thereby keeping the story alive for a few
more days.81
Huckabee next ran an ad beginning on Dec. 17. In it, he said Merry Christmas to
Iowans. He smiled warmly, sat in a red sweater as Christmas lights twinkled behind him.
A window frame behind to the right was lighted in a way reminiscent of a Christian
cross.82
1.2.h The Iowa Caucuses.
As the Iowa caucuses approached, polling suggested a very tight race between
Romney and Huckabee. Romney invested heavily in Iowa, blanketing the state with
commercials attacking Huckabee’s record on crime and taxes, preparing for this first-inthe-nation voting – the Iowa caucuses. Huckabee blasted back, saying Romney was
“dishonest” and that Huckabee’s policy concerns were taken out of context.83
The Iowa caucuses occurred in schools and meeting places around the state on
Jan. 3, 2008. What Romney hoped would be a major springboard for his campaign,
instead became a crushing loss for the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign.
Despite polls showing a close race, Mike Huckabee carried Iowa amid heavy turnout. He
81
Huckabee quite possibly knew that he was uttering what Mormons can understand to
be a distortion of their belief. That Huckabee headed up the Arkansas State Baptist
Convention, he likely understood much about the religious dispute between the two faiths
and might well have been familiar with the distortion. His question led to a full response
in New York Times by Laurie Goodstein, saying the Huckabee wasn’t alone in his
understanding of Mormonism – it forced another detailed discussion about Mormon
beliefs. See Laurie Goodstein, “Huckabee Is Not Alone In Ignorance on Mormonism,”
New York Times, December 14, 2007, 37.
82
“What really matters,” Mike Huckabee campaign commercial, under explorehuckabee,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xn7uSHtkuA, accessed August 12, 2010.
83
“Candidates show claws as Iowa caucuses loom,” CNN.com, under politics, at
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/30/2008.iowa/index.html, accessed August 11,
2010.
29
carried rural counties while Romney generally carried more urban ones. Huckabee
received four votes for every three Romney received amid heavy evangelical voting and
won by more than 10,000 caucus ballots, the New York Times reported.84
The result proved devastating for Romney. The evangelical bloc that distrusted
his faith played a big role in his defeat. The Washington Post and the New York Times
credited Huckabee’s success to evangelicals. Neither defined the victory of Huckabee as
a loss for Romney because of his Mormonism; neither mentioned Mormonism at all. The
Washington Post’s Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon said,
After spending nine months near the bottom of the pack, Huckabee
surged to become the front-runner in Iowa in December and never
relinquished the position, despite a barrage of negative ads from
Romney’s methodically built and well-financed operation.
But Huckabee now heads to New Hampshire, where voting takes
place Tuesday, with little support in the polls and only a ragtag
organization to mount a second come-from-behind victory. To succeed, he
will have to broaden his message, which has largely been designed to
appeal to the Christian conservatives who helped him win Thursday night.
New Hampshire voters tend to be less focused on social issues and more
concerned with lowering taxes and reducing the size of government.85
The New York Times’ Adam Nagourney put it this way:
On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of
Arkansas who was barely a blip on the national scene just two months ago,
defeated Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, delivering a
serious setback to Mr. Romney’s high-spending campaign and putting
pressure on Mr. Romney to win in New Hampshire next Tuesday.
Mr. Huckabee, a Baptist minister, was carried in large part by
evangelical voters, who helped him withstand extensive spending by Mr.
Romney on television advertising and a get-out-the-vote effort.
84
“Iowa Caucus Results,” The New York Times, at http://politics.nytimes.com/electionguide/2008/results/states/IA.html, accessed March 15, 2011.
85
Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr., “Huckabee Wins Iowa’s Republican Caucuses.
Evangelicals Fuel Victory Over Romney,” Washington Post, January 4, 2008, under 2008
politics, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303824.html?sid=ST2008010304585,
accessed March 15, 2011.
30
“Tonight we proved that American politics is still in the hands of
ordinary folks like you,” said Mr. Huckabee, who ran on a platform that
combined economic populism with an appeal to social conservatives.86
At this point, Mike Huckabee’s relative lack of funds bedeviled him, due to the
high cost and fast pace of coming primaries. Starting in the late 1960s, the number of
presidential primaries proliferated. States that wanted to increase their influence on the
nominating process scheduled them earlier and earlier, many holding elections on the
same days. Convention delegates were generally bound by the choices of primary
election voters, meaning nominees were effectively selected well before the national
party conventions. Not since the 1972 Democratic primary in Miami, which nominated
George McGovern, has a nomination been settled on the convention floor of either party.
In 2008, the election season started earlier than ever. New Hampshire and a handful of
other states were to vote in January. On Feb. 5, “Super Tuesday,” 19 states voted on the
same day. It was likely the party nomination would be sewn up by March. Faced with
these realities, Huckabee would have to raise vast sums of money almost immediately for
TV ads in mass-market states. He would have to build up campaign organizations in
states across the country almost overnight. And at the same time, he would have to score
well in New Hampshire, which had fewer evangelical voters than did Iowa.
Romney, by contrast, had far more money than Huckabee, and he was far better
organized in many more states.87 And, as the former governor of Massachusetts, he had
86
Adam Nagourney, “Obama Takes Iowa as Clinton Falters; Huckabee Victor,” The New
York Times, January 4, 2008, under US Politics, at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/politics/04elect.html?_r=1, accessed March 15,
2011.
87
See, for example, Glen Johnson, “Romney uses early electioneering in early voting
states,” Associated Press, June 17, 2007.
31
strong name-familiarity in neighboring New Hampshire, many of whose residents had
seen him regularly on Boston television.
1.2.i The New Hampshire Primary
New Hampshire was, of course, the first primary and had helped catapult Iowa
losers to nominations in the past. In New Hampshire, John McCain appeared to be
rebounding. In the months following his near-meltdown in July, McCain gradually built
new strength. Rather than spend much time in Iowa, he decided to invest his energy in
New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, polls showed another tight race, this time between
Romney and McCain, but the retired naval officer and former POW pulled ahead to
defeat Romney by more than 13,000 votes, CNN reported. For Romney, the old Olympic
boss, it was a second silver medal. Huckabee finished a distant third.88
Mormonism played into the coverage of New Hampshire in November, when the
Associated Press and other news outlets wrote about the push-poll that seemed to have an
anti-Mormon undertone and its subsequent attorney general investigation,89 but neither
the New York Times nor the Washington Post mentioned Mormonism at all in the stories
about McCain’s important victory in New Hampshire. Mormonism was less of an issue
in New Hampshire than it was in Iowa, polls and exit polls suggested. Eighty-eight
percent of respondents told pollsters that Mormonism would not matter, and 14 percent
88
The data for all of the vote counts comes from CNN Election Center at CNN.com,
under Election Center, at
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/dates/index.html#20080205,
accessed August 12, 2010.
89
Elliott, “NH, Iowa voters get anti-Romney calls,” Finnegan, “N.H. probe targets poll
on Romney: At issue is whether the survey tried to plant negative information. McCain
and other rivals deny involvement.”
32
said that it was “very important” to them to line up with a candidate’s views, and
Romney competed well among those voters.90
Romney won the lightly contested, delegate-poor Wyoming Caucuses on Jan. 5,
2008, but that was hardly evidence that he could recover and defeat John McCain.
Fortunately for Romney, the next primary state in the election cycle was delegate-rich
Michigan, the state where he was born. McCain had won the Michigan primary in 2000,
and it seemed he might be able to use his New Hampshire momentum to effectively end
Romney’s campaign with a native-state defeat. Instead, on Jan. 15, one week after New
Hampshire, Romney won Michigan by more than 80,000 votes. Romney became the
national frontrunner in delegates with 48 delegates compared to McCain’s 13 and
Huckabee’s 19.91
1.2.j South Carolina and Nevada
Romney’s weakness among evangelicals was highlighted again as he suspended
campaigning in South Carolina before voting began there, even though he invested
significant campaign resources to the state early in the campaign. He ended with a
fourth-place finish there Jan. 19, finishing with fewer than half the votes that McCain, the
winner, received.92 Associated Press articles showed that Romney made many visits to
South Carolina early in the campaign season, lining up the important endorsements of
90
Jon Cohen, “Data retread: Can a Mormon win?” Behind the Numbers blog post,
Washingtonpost.com, posted January 31, 2011, under Behind the Numbers, at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-thenumbers/2011/01/data_retread_can_a_mormon_win.html, accessed March 21, 2011.
91
This is calculated by wikipedia’s running tally at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2008_Republican_Party_presidential_primar
ies, accessed August 8, 2011.
92
Adam Nagourney and Michael Luo, “Romney leaves S. Carolina to focus on Nevada
Caucus,” New York Times, January 18, 2008, 16
33
Sen. Jim DeMint,93 and also of Paul Thurmond, the son of former Sen. Strom
Thurmond.94 The Associated Press’s South Carolina statehouse reporter Jim Davenport
pointed out that Romney traveled to South Carolina in February 2007 before he traveled
to New Hampshire as an official candidate, showing how important Romney thought
South Carolina to be.95 Romney spent considerably on advertising in South Carolina. His
idea was to win Iowa, New Hampshire, and Michigan, by then becoming the default
conservative candidate, and then deal a knockout blow to McCain in the first-in-theSouth primary. It didn’t turn out that way. In South Carolina, Romney trailed even Fred
Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who ran a short-lived campaign. Apparently,
Romney had been unable to overcome his “Mormon” problem in much of the South
where evangelical Christians made up a large portion of the population. According to the
New York Times, Romney’s staff attributed his failure there to suspicion among
evangelical voters.96 CNN exit polling data showed that the most frequent church goers –
those who attended church more than once a week – strongly preferred Huckabee. Those
who didn’t attend church regularly voted for the eventual winner, John McCain.97
Romney won in Nevada easily, however, a state with a large Mormon population, the
same day.
93
Associated Press, “Romney stops in Columbia,” January 30, 2007.
94
Jim Davenport, “Romney begins South Carolina campaign leg,” Associated Press,
February 14, 2007.
95
Jim Davenport, “Romney heading to vote-rich S.C. before New Hampshire,”
Associated Press, February 8, 2007.
96
Nagourney and Luo, “Romney leaves S. Carolina to focus on Nevada Caucus.”
97
CNN election central.
34
1.2.k The Death of Gordon B. Hinckley and Florida
Media focused less on Mormonism after the primary voting began, especially
when compared with the coverage before Romney’s speech. However, one event brought
Mormonism back as a major story just days before the Florida primary. On Jan. 27, the
president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, died
and Romney issued press statements and interrupted his campaign to attend the funeral
on Feb. 2. One analysis suggested that the funeral again made Mormonism central to the
Romney campaign, suggesting changing campaign dynamics:
The death of Mormon church President Gordon B. Hinckley renews
attention on Mitt Romney’s little-known religion yet rather than being
reluctant to discuss it, he’s making a public embrace that shows some
shifting political attitudes.
Two months ago, questions about Mormonism had grown so
distracting that Romney went to the George Bush Presidential Library in
Texas to outline his views about politics and religion in U.S. history and
today’s society. Even then, he uttered the word “Mormon” only once
during his speech.
Two months later, with some state wins behind him and evangelicals
less of a force in more populous states the former Massachusetts governor
has focused on the country’s ailing economy and his business background,
which he argues makes him the most qualified to occupy the White House.
The death of Hinckley, and Romney’s decision to attend his funeral
on Saturday, underscores his connection to and stature within The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a pivotal time for him: He is
reaching out to conservatives for their support after a series of high-profile
wins and endorsements have boosted rival John McCain’s campaign.
The difference now is that Romney approaches both his ongoing
campaign and the funeral rites with less tension over his religion. Contests
in Iowa and South Carolina, which both have significant evangelical
voting blocs, are behind him.98
98
Glen Johnson, “Analysis: Mormon leader’s death renews focus on Romney’s faith,”
Associated Press, February 1, 2008.
35
Insofar as the Mormon issue was a problem for Mitt Romney, Hinckley’s death
reinforced the issue of Mormonism in people’s minds and also took Romney away from
some campaign swings.
Leading up to the Florida primary on Jan. 29, 2008, polls showed a tight contest
between Romney and McCain, with Giuliani trailing badly, his Florida strategy a clear
failure. McCain received important endorsements from Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel
Martinez.99 Romney lost to McCain by just fewer than 100,000 votes.100 Huckabee and
Giuliani trailed far behind, which effectively ended Giuliani’s campaign. The New York
Times’s exit polling in Florida suggested that Romney, McCain and Huckabee split the
evangelical Christian vote evenly, a departure from earlier states. McCain did better with
voters who attended church infrequently.101 The New York Times credited the
endorsements for McCain’s success and found much in McCain’s positions on the war
and on the economy as explanations for his success.102
According to pundits, the momentum had now clearly shifted to John McCain,
and they gave little attention to Romney’s Feb. 2 win in the Maine caucuses, where
McCain made little effort.
99
Jonathan Martin, McCain’s one-two punch,” Politico.com, January 27, 2008, under
2010, at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8137.html, accessed March 21,
2011; Associated Press, “Romney, McCain trade barbs ahead of Florida. Debate over
leadership credentials, Iraq in advance of Tuesday’s primary,” January 26, 2008.
100
CNN Election Center.
101
“Profile of Florida primary voters, based on questionnaires filled out by voters as they
exited the polls,” under Election 2008, at http://politics.nytimes.com/electionguide/2008/results/vote-polls/FL.html, accessed March 21, 2011.
102
Cooper and Thee, “McCain defeats Romney in Florida Vote.”
36
1.2.l Super Tuesday
The next campaign stop was the multi-state Super Tuesday primary on Feb. 5,
which included important, delegate-rich states. Romney competed heavily, spending
money in California and elsewhere on advertising in what was effectively the nation’s
largest quasi-national primary in history. McCain received the endorsement of California
governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his momentum continued. The Associated Press
said Romney’s chances had come down to a narrow strategy: Romney needed to rely on
Mormons to win: “With his opportunity for scoring the nomination dwindling, Romney’s
strategy calls for seeking votes in states with heavy concentrations of Romney’s fellow
Mormons: California, Arizona, and Utah, seat of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.”103
How widely shared this analysis is remains unclear, but regardless, it suggested
how thin Romney’s chances had become, some pundits said. When Super Tuesday results
were tallied, Huckabee won five states across the South: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee,
his home state of Arkansas, and the West Virginia caucuses, where McCain’s people
gave all their support to Huckabee to deny Romney a win. Huckabee won, again with the
help of evangelical voters who distrusted Mormonism.104 Romney won seven states,
including his home state of Massachusetts, Mormon-dominated Utah, Minnesota, North
Dakota, Alaska, Montana and Colorado. Only two states, Massachusetts and Utah, were
primary states. The rest were caucus states where Romney’s excellent organization
103
Associated Press, “Romney, McCain up ante on Super Tuesday ads. Both campaigns
had earlier said they wouldn’t spend heavily in those states,” January 31, 2008.
104
Michael Luo, “Huckabee wins West Virginia contest,” New York Times The Caucus
Blog, under The Caucus, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/huckabee-winswest-virginia-contest/, accessed August 12, 2010.
37
proved significant in capturing those delegates. McCain won the important states, taking
California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey easily. By the end of the night on Super
Tuesday, McCain had amassed 514 delegates compared to 177 for Romney. There
seemed little chance Romney could come back to win the nomination. Two days later on
Feb. 7, Romney went before the Conservative Political Action Committee and withdrew.
He endorsed McCain shortly thereafter.
1.2.m Campaign post-mortems.
Campaign post-mortems sometimes looked at Mormonism as a factor in Romney’s
defeat, but sometimes included little detail. The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page
article about how big of a surprise the headwinds were to Mormons. It talked of how a
leading LDS official was calling on Mormons to speak out.105 The Washington Post took
a lighter treatment of the topic:
“Mormons were chased out of the Midwest in the 1840s, and ever
since then they’ve been looking to America for approval,” says Bengt
Washburn, a Mormon who is also a full-time comedian. (There aren’t a lot
of those, by the way. In case you were wondering.) Washburn says
Mormons he knows will constantly list examples of mainstream Mormons
to outsiders. Gladys Knight is a Mormon! Steve Young is a Mormon!
Donny! Marie!
It’s as if to say, “See? Mormons aren't weird,” Washburn says.
“Well, yeah, we’re weird.”106
What is lost in all this is how strong Romney’s campaign could have been if he
105
Suzanne Sataline, “Tabernacle on Trial,” Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2008, A1.
This article brought up the other most direct broadsides against the Mormon religion –
Lawrence O’Donell’s tirade on the McLaughlin Group that Romney comes from a
“religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro- slavery, and a rapist. And
he comes from that lineage and says, “I respect this religion fully.” . . . He's got to
answer.” (As quoted in Sataline, “Tabernacle on Trial.”)
106
Libby Copeland, “Did Mormons Get a Bounce from Mitt?” Washington Post,
February 8, 2009, C1.
38
had detected the Huckabee challenge. As it was, Romney won 33 percent of all votes
cast in the primaries and caucuses in which he competed. So, in one sense, Mitt
Romney’s campaign seemed to show how far Mormons had come in the United States.
Still, it can’t be denied that perceptions of Mormonism were significant factors in
Romney’s defeat. If anything, journalists downplayed the Mormonism angle at the end
of the campaign. The Wall Street Journal’s post-mortem on the campaign said:
There were many other factors that may have contributed to his
failed campaign. He didn’t gain sufficient traction among the social
conservatives influential to his party. Opponents attacked him, saying he
changed his moderate stances to more conservative ones to attract votes,
including his position on abortion.
Some observers play down religious bias as a factor. Ken Jennings, a
Mormon who was a “Jeopardy!” champion, says anti-Mormon attacks
“contributed” to Mr. Romney’s problems, but weren’t the only obstacle. “I
suspect there were bigger forces in play than the religion,” such as
perceptions that Mr. Romney had shifted his positions, says Mr. Jennings,
of Seattle. “There were principled reasons to say, ‘I like McCain over
Romney.’”
Religion “wasn’t a factor in the governor’s decision to step aside,”
says Eric Fehrnstrom, a campaign spokesman. “There was a lot more
focus on religion early on in the race, but as people learned more about
Gov. Romney, his success as a businessman and as leader of the
Olympics, it receded as an issue into the background.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Romney’s campaign exposed a surprisingly
virulent strain of anti-Mormonism that had been largely hidden to the
general public.107
Similarly, the BBC’s Steve Schifferes argued that Mormonism was part of the
reason Romney lost, but not the only one:
Mr. Romney had a big credibility problem among Republican
primary voters, who were not convinced by his conversion from a liberal
Massachusetts governor to a conservative candidate for national office.
His “flip-flop” on a universal health care mandate, which he had
introduced in Massachusetts but repudiated nationally, was one commonly
cited example.
Conservatives were also suspicious about his changed views on
107
Sataline, “Tabernacle on Trial.”
39
social issues like abortion.
This served to alienate him from the Christian right, a key group
within the Republican Party, which was already suspicious of his Mormon
religion.
In the primary elections on Tuesday, most Christian evangelicals
backed Mike Huckabee, taking enough votes away from Mr. Romney to
give victory to John McCain in key states like California and New
York.”108
The BBC, perhaps because it was an outsider media source, focused on
Mormonism as one of many factors in explaining Romney’s defeat. The present study
explores the nature and influence of this one factor in much greater detail: Mormonism.
1.3 Mormonism and the study
Mormonism in the coverage of Mitt Romney’s campaign was frequent and heavy.
A Lexis-Nexis and Proquest search for the amount of coverage Romney received suggest
that 13 percent of all the articles that mentioned Romney included the fact that he was a
Mormon.109 Similarly, Romney’s Mormonism was mentioned with greater frequency
than that of other candidates during the time Romney was in the campaign.110
Therefore, as is apparent Mitt Romney’s campaign, a study that looked only at
108
Steve Schifferes, “Why Mitt Romney quit the Race,” BBC News, February 7, 2008,
under analysis, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7233528.stm, accessed January 15,
2011.
109
Search conducted in March 2011 of the number of articles that mentioned the words
“Mitt Romney and NOT Mormon,” and the words “Mitt Romney and Mormon” in the
New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the
Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the Associated Press. Of the 7,327 articles that
mentioned Mitt Romney between Jan. 1, 2006 and Feb. 10. 2008, 928 of them included at
least one mention of the word “Mormon.”
110
See Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “Running on Faith. Study finds
media coverage of religion in the primary campaign rivaled the coverage of race
and gender combined,” analysis July 10, 2008, under politics and elections, at
http://pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Running-on-Faith.aspx, accessed
September 2, 2010. This was supported by a Lexis-Nexis tally conducted by the
study’s author.
40
political communication aspects of Romney’s campaign would miss many of its most
important dynamics that involved religion. In September 2007, the Pew Research Center
for the People and the Press released a survey of more than 3,000 American adults that
suggested that 27 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Mormons and 53
percent have a favorable view of the faith. Twenty percent of the respondents said that
the primary sources of information on Mormons were media sources in contrast with 29
percent who say personal experience was their primary source of information about
Mormons. Even though Mormons consider themselves Christian, only 52 percent of
Americans agreed and 40 percent of evangelical Christians thought so. A slight plurality
said they knew little or not much about Mormonism – 51 percent. Sixty-two percent said
Mormonism was very different from their own religion. When Pew’s researchers asked
for a one-word impression of Mormonism – of the 1,461 who provided a response, 75
mentioned the long-abandoned practice of polygamy, the most frequent response; 74
percent mentioned Mormonism’s support for family and family values. Another 57 said
Mormonism is a cult. Other common responses included that Mormons are different,
good, faithful, strict and devoted. A slight plurality used an unfavorable term to explain
Mormonism over what Pew called a favorable term.111
Mormonism has a long, painful history with the United States. After its founding
in upstate New York in 1830, its early members left New York, Ohio, Missouri, and
Illinois under intense persecution until finally finding a home in the Rocky Mountains of
Utah. Non-Mormon scholar Jan Shipps said the nation’s press viewed Mormonism with
111
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life; Pew Research Center for the People & the
Press, “Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism,” Survey, September 25,
2007, survey conducted by Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas, under publications
http://pewforum.org/surveys/religionviews07/, accessed March 9, 2009.
41
disquiet for many years – longer than any other religious group in American history.112
According to Shipps and to Mormon scholar Terryl Givens, Mormons faced years of
stereotype and unfavorable portrayals in the press during the 19th century and into the
early 20th century in both the popular press and in fiction. 113 In the middle decades of the
20th century, however, Mormonism became portrayed in ways that were much more
favorable and which largely downplayed Mormonism’s unique beliefs in contrast with
other faiths. Some argued Mormonism had entered the American mainstream while
others wondered if Mormons still languished outside that mainstream.114 Though
Mormons make up a small minority of Americans, Mormonism has grown to some 6
million adherents in the United States.115 In the months following the Mitt Romney
campaign, Mormons played a significant role in the passage of Proposition 8 in
California, and a Mormon break-off group that practiced polygamy in Texas was raided
by authorities fearing child abuse, keeping “Mormonism” in the news. 116
112
Jan Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint: American Perceptions of the Mormons, 1860-1960,”
in Sojourner in the Promised Land, Forty Years among the Mormons, (Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2000), 51-97.
113
Terryl Givens, The Viper on the Hearth. Mormons: Myths, and the Construction of
Heresy. (New York: Oxford University Press USA, 1997).
114
See chapter 2.
115
Walter Kirn, “Mormons Rock,” Newsweek, June 5, 2011, under
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/05/mormons-rock.html, accessed June 11, 2011.
116
Matthai Kuruvila, Mormons face flak for backing prop 8,” San Francisco
Chronicle, October 27, 2008, under prop 8, at http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-1027/bay-area/17137948_1_mormons-salt-lake-city-based-church-ballot-measure,
accessed August 15, 2010; Wendy Koch, “401 children taken in Texas polygamist
raid,” USA Today, April 27, 2008, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200804-07-Polygamy_N.htm, accessed August 19, 2009.
42
The central research question of this study is this: what frames were evident in the
coverage of Mitt Romney and his religion during the 2008 campaign?
Related questions emerge from this focus: How does horse race framing of
politics influence the framing of a minority religion? Was Mitt Romney’s Mormonism
portrayed as in the mainstream of American religious thought? Did presidential
campaigns from history merit frequent comparison to Mitt Romney?
This study is neither intended to be an apologetic for Mormonism nor meant to be
a criticism of political journalism. Its purpose is to provide insight. In an era of declining
news budgets and of cuts in religious reporting staffs, understanding the dynamics in the
nexus of politics, elections, journalism and religion is an important reason for this
dissertation. Insight from this study may improve journalism and the discourse of
religion and politics in journalism. It may help journalism educators know some of the
pitfalls in framing religion, especially in framing religion and politics. It may help
reporters understand Mormonism and other minority perspectives better. Candidates from
lesser-known religions may understand more about how their faith may be framed as they
run for office and to be prepared as the unusual features of their faith face scrutiny.
What follows in chapter 2 is an overview of the academic literature covering the
forces that came together in the campaign of Mitt Romney – the forces of the news
media, of electoral politics, of religion and of Mormonism itself. The literature review
that follows starts with a review of the history of presidential elections and religion and
of the role of religion in politics. It concludes with a discussion of the academic literature
of two important areas of the literature – the idea of the horserace of media coverage of
43
presidential elections and the idea of the model minority discourse in the coverage of the
Mormon religion.
Chapter 3 describes how this study was conducted using its content analysis.
Chapter 4 covers the findings in detail. The fifth and final chapter makes conclusions,
discussions and suggests further research.
44
Chapter 2: Review of the Literature
2.1 Historical Church and State Background
Two issues sit at the heart of this study. The first is the relationship between
religion and the news media and the second is the relationship between religion and
America’s presidential elections.
Scholars such as John Durham Peters and Doug Underwood point out that media
spring from religious roots.117 The term media is a spiritualist one – a medium is
someone who helps connect others with the dead. The earliest journalists were
sometimes called Mercurists, the messengers of the Gods.118 The leader of the 19th
century mass press or “penny press,” James Gordon Bennett, said he could save souls
through his media.119 Religious overtones often illuminated the journalism of the
muckrakers.120 Walter Williams chose a religious term, “creed,” for journalism’s first
ethical statement.121 Today, as Underwood observes, new technology has taken on an
almost religious significance. He writes, “Humankind has long been prone to believe that
the latest tools of communication will lead to a wonderful, new spiritual revolution.”122
117
John Durham Peters, Speaking into the Air, A History of the Idea of Communication,
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); Doug Underwood, From Yahweh to
Yahoo!, The Religious Roots of a Secular Press, (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois
Press, 2001).
118
See Oxford English Dictionary entry under journalists.
119
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, 23.
120
Mark Feldstein, “A Muckraking Model: Investigative Reporting Cycles in American
History,” The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 11, no. 2, (2006) 105-120.
121
Walter Williams, Journalist’s Creed, University of Missouri School of Journalism
website, under about, http://journalism.missouri.edu/about/creed.html, accessed August
15, 2010.
122
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, 207.
45
Spiritual kinship, however, doesn’t mean the media and religion have avoided
conflict. If anything, scholars and historians say, the opposite is true. Media and religion
scholar Mark Silk argues that American journalism’s beginnings are tied in with “giving
offense to religion.”123 The New England Courant – published by James Franklin – was
the first newspaper not controlled by political authorities; among the first things it did
was take on the established clerics, including Cotton Mather.124 Similarly, Bennett, the
father of the American Penny Press, built his empire by taking printing techniques first
developed for religious publications and applying them to a mass press that focused on
scandal, often writing about and even mocking the religious establishment. In the 20th
century, the influential writer and journalist H.L. Mencken often used his columns to
attack the “Puritanism” of religious believers. A fear of religious traditionalism was his
central philosophy. His witty remark that Puritanism is the “haunting fear that someone,
somewhere may be happy” exemplifies the scorn he held for organized religion. His
writings against William Jennings Bryan – who opposed the teaching of evolution during
the Scopes trial – are among his most famous.125 It appears that similar conflict continues
today as a secular media struggles to get an appropriate take on religion.
In the area of religion and politics, former Columbia historian Richard Bushman
has said that America has two founding documents that have been difficult to reconcile:
the Constitution and the Bible. He says, “One makes the people the voice of God, the
123
Mark Silk, Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. (Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 1998),15.
124
Ibid.,16.
125
See http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/117.html, accessed January 26, 2010; S.T.
Joshi, “Introduction,” in Mencken’s America, by H.L. Mencken, edited by S.T. Joshi, viixviii, (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2004).
46
other the prophets.”126 At the heart of American politics is a nation at once deeply
religious and also deeply conflicted about religion. Newsweek Managing Editor Jon
Meacham, a writer Mitt Romney consulted while preparing his “Faith in America”
speech, shows in his book American Gospel how religion has been part of the fabric of
American discourse since the beginning, citing numerous examples of faith woven into
the fabric of the country – things such as Lincoln’s second inaugural address. 127 French
political observer Alexis de Tocqueville said America was deeply religious with
numerous sects. When he visited the country in the 19th century, he noted that religion
and politics were kept separate. The diversity and, especially, separation of church and
state (meaning the lack of a state-sponsored religion), explained the success of religion in
America, he said.128
Of the industrialized nations, the United States is, by far, the most religious
country. Researchers have noted that economic growth corresponds with a lower interest
in religion, a trend known as the secularism hypothesis. The U. S. is a statistical outlier,
126
Millennial Star editors, “M* Interviews: Richard Lyman Bushman,” millenialstar.org,
November 14, 2005, under
http://www.millennialstar.org/index.php/2005/11/14/m_interviews_richard_lyman_bush
man, accessed October 22, 2007.
127
ABC News Political Radar, “Romney; I’m not giving a JFK speech.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/romney-im-not-g.html, December 3,
2007, accessed January 26, 2010; Jon Meacham, American Gospel: God, the Founding
Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks,
2006).
128
Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1899 translation by Henry Reeve,
electronic version created by the University of Virginia American Studies Program, June
1, 1997, http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7Ehyper/detoc/, accessed January 26, 2010, Chapter
17, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch17.htm, accessed January 21, 2010.
47
however, showing a high interest in religion despite relatively high economic growth.129
Economist Robert Fogel said religious interest in the United States is so great today the
country may be said to be entering a fourth “great awakening.” Awakenings, Fogel
explains, are religious revivals that, as they mature, first change religions from the inside
and then produce legislative and other reforms through political realignments.130 On the
other hand, British scholar Steven Bruce argues that American religious affiliation,
especially its Christianity, may look more like secular Europe in a few decades.131 Still
other scholars write that the most striking trend in the American religious landscape is
that it has grown more diverse, both within traditional Christian churches and their types
of worship, and also outside of Christianity, where new faiths are prospering and new
kinds of non-creedal spiritualism are emerging.132 Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, for
example, are making strong inroads.133
Just as the United States remains a uniquely religious, industrialized country, it is
also a deeply conflicted one. University of Virginia religious studies professor James
Davidson Hunter calls this conflict a culture war, a rift that divides not just along secular
lines but also along partisan lines as conservative, religiously oriented traditionalists
129
Kenneth D. Wald and Allison Calhoun-Brown, Religion and Politics in the United
States, 5th Edition. (Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, 2007), 9.
130
William Fogel, The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000),1-31.
131
Steve Bruce, God is Dead, Secularization and the West. (Malden, MA: WileyBlackwell, 2002), 204-228.
132
Charles H. Lippy, Pluralism Comes of Age: American Religious Culture in the 20th
Century, (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000), 1-17.
133
Diana L. Eck, A New Religious America: How A “Christian Country” Has Become
the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,
2001), 1-26, 80-293.
48
become increasingly Republican and more liberal, secular voters become more
Democratic. 134 Issues that touch on religious morality, including homosexual rights,
prayer in schools, evolution, abortion and other issues have become this cultural divide’s
touchstones.135 Notre Dame scholar Geoffrey Layman and Indiana University’s Edward
Carmines said that this “religion-based cultural cleavage” seems to be growing in
electoral and partisan politics.136 This “great divide,” as Layman calls it, also pits
religious traditionalists against those whose religion is more secular. 137
As the divide grows, there’s renewed debate about what the role of religion
should be in American politics. Two basic views dominate the conversation, dividing
along the lines of the culture war. There are those who argue that religion’s role in
American politics should be strongly limited. Writing in the 1990s, UNLV political
scientist Ted Jelen argued that religion, because it conflicts with democracy for loyalty,
can be dangerous. He says religious believers are much less likely to support free speech
than those who claim to have no religion. As controversies grow, he noted, the decisions
people make in politics may cause believers to make personal compromises that render
“unto Caesar that which is God’s.”138 He says government can contaminate religion.139
134
James Davison Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Control the Family, Art,
Education, Law and Politics in America. (New York: Basic Books, 1992).
135
Geoffrey Layman and Edward G. Carmines “Cultural Conflict in American Politics,
Religious Traditionalism, Postmaterialism and U.S. Political Behavior.” The Journal of
Politics, 59 no.3, (August 1997): 751-777, 751.
136
Ibid.,769.
137
Geoffrey Layman, The Great Divide. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
138
Ibid., 40.
139
Ted G. Jelen, “In Defense of Religious Minimalism,” in A Wall of Separation?
Debating the public role of religion, edited by Mary C. Segers and Ted Jelen. (Lantham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998), 33-40.
49
The idea of a strong sense of separation between religion and government comes
first from Roger Williams, who founded the Rhode Island colony. Williams’ views about
separation came from his view that the mix of church and politics had deeply
contaminated religion, citing as his example the direct mix of church and state during the
reign of emperor Constantine.140 The theme of separation became deeper in the U.S.
tradition with Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter to a Connecticut Baptist congregation,
where he talked of a wall of separation between religious practice and the government.141
This line of thinking was important in in 1960 when John F. Kennedy picked up the
theme in a famous speech to the Houston Ministerial Association. He told his audience
that religion should not influence his decisions, and that he would leave his Catholic faith
rather than go against what he thought was right for the country.142
This concept of the separation of church and state can make it a challenge for
journalists to cover religion because religion is seen as not part of political dialogue and
protected uniquely under the First Amendment.
There is an opposing view of the role of religion in the Republic – a view religion
has a role that should be encouraged and that the effects of religion on government are
necessary and largely salutary. This line of thinking may be traced to George
Washington and the American founding. Washington argued in his farewell address that
religion was vital to democracy:
140
Meacham, An American Gospel, 54-55.
141
Thomas Jefferson, Reply to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, January
1, 1802, as printed in Meacham, An American Gospel, 264.
142
Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1960. (New York: Atheneum House,
1961), 260-263; 391-393.
50
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man
claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great
pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and
citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect
and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with
private and public felicity. … And let us with caution indulge the
supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever
may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of
peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that
national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of
popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to
every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can
look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the
fabric?143
De Tocqueville, a devout Catholic, also thought that religion was necessary to
maintain a strong republic. In essence, he said that religion provides controls on behavior
and that moral behavior is necessary to the rule of law and democratic governance. He
wrote in Democracy in America:
There is no religion that does not place the object of man’s desires
above and beyond the treasures of earth and that does not naturally raise
his soul to regions far above those of the senses. Nor is there any which
does not impose on man some duties towards his kind and thus draw him
at times from the contemplation of himself. …
Religious nations are therefore naturally strong on the very point
on which democratic nations are weak; this shows of what importance it is
for men to preserve their religion as their conditions become more equal.
When the religion of a people is destroyed, doubt gets hold of the higher
powers of the intellect and half paralyzes all the others.144
According to Meacham, the founders resolved the tension between these views of
the religion’s role in the public square and the tensions inherent in differing religious
beliefs, in part, by developing a public religion, a creedless non-denominational
143
George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796, at Yale University’s Avalon Project,
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp, accessed January 26, 2010.
144
De Tocqueville, Chapter V, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/detoc/ch1_05.htm
51
discourse. In this functional, public religion, there is a god, Nature’s God, whose interest
is the nation and its destiny, whose judgments hang over the country and whose
bounteous blessings include a rich land and civil rights and liberty. He writes, “In the
public business of the nation … it was important to the Founders to speak of God in a
way that was unifying, not divisive. ‘Nature’s God’ was the path they chose, and it has
served the country admirably.”145 He added:
Public religion is not a substitute for private religion, nor is it a Trojan
horse filled with evangelicals threatening the walls of secular America. It
is rather a habit of mind and of heart that enables Americans to be at once
tolerant and reverent – two virtues of relevance to all, for the Founders’
public religion is consummately democratic. When a President says “God
bless America” or when we sing “America! America! God shed his grace
on thee,” each American is free to define God in whatever way he
chooses.146
Public religion focuses on areas of agreement and avoids an imposed orthodoxy.
For a candidate such as Mitt Romney, whose religion has comparatively few believers
compared with the national population, an adhered-to public religion provided a rationale
to keep the narrow specifics of his faith out of public discussion. However, voter
concerns about the religion of American presidential candidates date back to the 1800
campaign of Thomas Jefferson and continue today. These campaigns often highlighted
the tension between the different views of the role of religion in the public square. The
historical literature and contemporary news accounts of past campaigns show news media
helped shape discourse about religion in these campaigns.147
In 1800, Dutch Reformed minister William Linn published a pamphlet about
145
Meacham, An American Gospel, 22-23.
146
Ibid.
147
For a deeper discussion of these campaigns, please see Appendix H.
52
Jefferson, a deist, saying “on account of his disbelief of the Holy Scripture, and his
attempts to discredit them, he ought to be rejected from the Presidency.”148 Purdue
history professor Frank Lambert argues that Jefferson’s victory was important in
confirming the lack of a religious test in American politics.
The first Mormon to run for president was Joseph Smith, the church’s founder, in
1844, the year James K. Polk was ultimately elected. Smith was shot and killed by a mob
in Carthage, Illinois, before the election, becoming the first candidate or American
president to be assassinated. His platform received national media attention, some hugely
negative and some favorable. 149
A major test of the role of religion in presidential politics was the watershed
election of 1928 that pitted New York’s Democratic governor, Al Smith, a Catholic,
against protestant Herbert Hoover. Smith was the first major Catholic nominee for
president. According to St. John’s University’s Michael Hostetler, Smith wished to avoid
the religious question altogether, even though he wrote one important essay on the topic
in Atlantic magazine.150 Smith never fully overcame the religious issue, and he lost in a
landslide.
The next major discussion of the religion of a candidate in American presidential
politics came with the campaign of John F. Kennedy, another Irish Catholic. Kennedy’s
148
Frank Lambert, “God—and a religious president … [or] Jefferson and the No
Campaigning for a voter-imposed religious test in 1800,” Journal of Church & State, 39,
No. 4, (Autumn 1997), 769.
149
Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency. (Ann
Arbor, MI: John Whitmer Books, 2008), 30-32; 269-281.
150
Michael J. Hostetler, “Gov. Al Smith Confronts the Catholic Question: The Rhetorical
Legacy of the 1928 Campaign,” Communication Quarterly, 46, No 1, (Winter 1998), 1223.
53
Catholic faith was a dominant theme of the 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy began
laying the groundwork on the issue in 1959 in the press. The press tracked the issue
closely, but it may have been the press that helped turn the tide in Kennedy’s favor later
in the campaign by isolating those against Kennedy, framing opposition to Catholicism as
bigotry.151 On Sept. 12, 1960, Kennedy spoke to 600 people at the Rice Hotel in Houston
at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association.152 Journalist Theodore White said no one
could be certain the effect of Kennedy’s speech, but it received frequent attention and
marked the end of much of the open discussion about JFK’s religion during the
campaign.153
Writer Timothy Crouse says that political reporting changed following that 1960
campaign because of the surprise success of a book about it: The Making of the President
– 1960 by Theodore White. Before 1960, campaign coverage was formulaic, Crouse says,
describing reporters as “interchangeable drones who wrote the same simple formula
stories day after day.” 154 After 1960, political reporters began to use the colorful details
in candidates’ campaigns, not for a White-like retrospective after an election, but during
day-to-day coverage, “exposing flaws and inconsistencies in the candidate that could ruin
his chances before he even reached the primaries.”155 The coverage became more focused
on the narrative of the campaign. And a new kind of media onslaught or media pack
emerged, Crouse argued.
151
White, The Making of the President 1960, 97.
152
White, The Making of the President 1960, 260-263; 391-393.
153
Ibid.
154
Crouse, Boys on the Bus, 30.
155
Ibid., 37.
54
One of the first major candidates to face this new media strategy was the second
major Mormon candidate – George Romney, who ran for the Republican presidential
nomination in 1968. Romney was Mitt Romney’s father, and a former Michigan
governor, who at one time in 1966 led both Lyndon Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy in
opinion polls before fading.156 Media followed Romney’s early campaign trips closely,
but after several prominent gaffes, including one in which he said he had been
brainwashed about Vietnam, his standing tumbled.157 He withdrew before the New
Hampshire primary. White said that Romney’s campaign became a laughing-stock, but
There was nothing comic in the performance itself – only in the
mirror of the media and the press through which the nation saw the
performance. And the story of the Romney campaign is less one of
politics than of the influence of the media in modern America.158
The media didn’t understand the moral views of the candidate, White said.159
The campaign of Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter in 1976 also had important
religious overtones that ultimately involved Mormonism. During Carter’s campaign,
several articles appeared about his sister’s deeply held mystical beliefs and how she had
guided him to a religious conversion.160 Carter also delivered a speech about his religion
and about the misperceptions of his faith.161 John Siegenthaler wrote that Carter’s born 156
Associated Press, “President Trails Romney 46% to 54, in Harris Poll,” New York
Times, November 21, 1966, 22.
157
White, The Making of the President 1968, 66-69.
158
White, The Making of the President 1968, 61.
159
Ibid., 64.
160
Martin Gardner, “The Gift of Inner Healing,” New York Times, August 22, 1976, 194;
New York Times, “Poll Finds 34% Share ‘Born Again’ Feeling,” September 26, 1976.
161
Charles Mohr, “Carter Gets an Ovation After Assuring Jews in Jersey on His
Religious Views,” New York Times, June 7, 1976.
55
again Christianity was news for a week, but then faded quickly.162
Arizona Congressman Morris Udall opposed Carter in 1976 during the
Democratic nomination primaries, and religion again became an issue. Udall disavowed
his Mormon religion at a young age because of the church’s belief at the time that men of
African descent could not receive the Mormon priesthood at the time. Near the end of the
campaign, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, an African-American, encouraged Democrats
to vote against Udall because of his Mormon roots. It was widely reported that Young
told a group of black ministers that they should not vote for “a man from Arizona, whose
church won’t even let you in the back door.”163 One report suggested that Udall’s loss
could be attributed in part to Mayor Young’s connections to Carter.164
The 1988 presidential campaign included significant focus on two ministers
running for office, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Pat Robertson. While neither had
held a political office, both generated significant grassroots support. Robertson placed
second in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of eventual Republican nominee George Bush, and
won the Washington state caucus during the campaign. Jackson received the secondmost convention delegates behind eventual Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.165
The fourth Mormon – if Udall is included as a Mormon – to make a major run for
president was Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who had little success in the late 1990s generating
162
John Siegenthaler,“Introduction,” in Bridging the Gap: Religion and the News Media,
by John Dart and Jimmy Allen. (Nashville, TN: Freedom Forum’s First Amendment
Center, 2000), at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/bridgingthegap.PDF,
accessed November 30, 2007, 19.
163
“Udall asks apology by Detroit Mayor.” New York Times, May 16, 1976, 31.
164
Robert Reinhold, “Polls Links Udall Strength to Low Vote in Michigan.” New York
Times, May 20, 1976, 1.
165
This overview of the campaign comes from wikipedia’s detailed listing of the election
results.
56
enthusiasm for his candidacy and left the race early in 2000 as George W. Bush’s charged
to victory. Historians Newell Bringhurst and Craig Foster write that Hatch’s
unsuccessful campaign brought Mormonism into the coverage “as a significant, sustained
issue.”166 In 2000, George W. Bush took a controversial trip to Bob Jones University167
during the campaign, described Jesus as his favorite philosopher, and used his religious
conversion as a way of explaining how he had gone from being an irresolute young man
to a successful business leader and politician.168 Religion re-emerged as a topic that fall
when Al Gore selected Joe Lieberman, a Jewish senator from Connecticut, as his running
mate. Some studies suggested that Lieberman’s religion was enough to convince at least a
few voters to vote against the ticket – an important few, given the narrow margin of the
Bush-Cheney victory in 2000.169
Historic candidacies provide useful templates and heuristics with which to
compare contemporary candidates. It seems likely that comparisons to a candidate like
Kennedy would legitimize a candidate, while a framing comparison to candidatea like Al
Smith or Morris Udall might harm the perceptions of that candidate; however, no studies
166
Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency. (Ann
Arbor, MI: John Whitmer Books, 2008), 118. For more detail on this issue, please see
Appendix I.
167
Glen Johnson, “Bush Saddled With ‘Bob Jones’ Label,” Associated Press, February
24, 2000; at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/aponline/20000224/aponline143324_000.htm
168
Darren K Carlson, “Keeping the Faith: George W. Bush and Religion,” Gallup News
Service, at http://www.gallup.com/poll/6061/Keeping-Faith-George-Bush-Religion.aspx,
accessed May 9, 2011.
169
James G. Kane, Stephen C. Craig, and Kenneth D. Wald, “Religion and Presidential
Politics in Florida: A List Experiment,” Social Science Quarterly, 85, no. 2, (June 2004),
281; Adam J. Berensky and Tali Mendelberg. “The Indirect Effects of Discredited
Stereotypes in Judgments of Jewish Leaders,” American Journal of Political Science, 49,
no. 4, (October 2005): 845-864.
57
have been done examining the framing of contemporary candidates through the historical
lens of past campaigns.
At the same time, many observers believe that religion’s influence on politics in
recent years has grown. Pollster Andrew Kohut and his colleagues write that religious
issues have become more central to American politics since Jimmy Carter’s
presidency.170 Communication scholars Kevin Coe and David Domke noted that
references to God in presidential speeches have grown since Ronald Reagan assumed the
presidency, with such mentions having special emphasis during the presidencies of
Ronald Reagan and of George W. Bush.171
2.2 Framing Presidential Politics, Media and Religion.
This study is based upon two ideas that are repeated themes in the academic
literature: the first theme is that the news media face criticisms and challenges in the way
they have framed presidential elections, especially their framing those elections as horse
races. The second theme is that the secular news media in the United States struggle to
frame religion well, especially in its nexus with politics and elections. For the coverage
of minority religions, as Mormonism arguably is, the struggle is even more challenging.
The purpose of this literature review is to trace these themes in the literature and to
examine the arguments surrounding those issues.
170
Andrew Kohut, John C. Green, Scott Keeter, and Robert C. Toth, Diminishing Divide:
Religion’s Changing Role in American Politics. (Washington DC: Brookings Institution
Press, 2000),1-3.
171
Kevin Coe and David Domke “Petitioners or Prophets? Presidential Discourse, God,
and the Ascendancy of Religious Conservatives,” Journal of Communication, 56 (2006):
317.
58
The concept of framing gained much of its explanatory power through the work
of Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate who wrote with the late
Amos Tversky during the 1980s and 1990s. These scholars demonstrated that, as they
changed the wording of answers to either-or questions in experiments, people chose
answers with vastly differing frequencies, depending on how those answers were worded,
even when the difference between the two choices was mathematically
inconsequential.172 Many experiments have shown the power of word choice – of verbal
framing – in real life.173
Framing, to use George Washington University’s Robert Entman’s words, is an
unavoidable choice, necessary in writing:
To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make
them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a
particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation,
and/or treatment recommendation.174
Later, he added:
172
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky “Choices, Values, and Frames,” in Choices,
Values and Frames, ed. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, 1-16. (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press 2000), 5. For example, they found that something as
minimally different in perceived value as a $10 bill and a $10 ticket could have a
significant influence upon whether a person will choose to make a purchase. They also
found that if their questions provided a choice between risk and saving life or between
risk and preventing death – the same thing really – respondents would nevertheless
choose strikingly different answers to either-or questions. Kahnemann and Tversky said
their results were “… both pervasive and robust.”
173
Shanto Iyengar, Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 12-13.
174
Robert Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm,” in
McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory, ed. Denis McQuail. (London: Sage,
2002), 391.
59
A standard definition of framing: selecting and highlighting some
facets of events or issues, and making connections among them so as to
promote a particular interpretations, evaluation, and/or solution.175
Framing analysis asks which dimensions of a person, an organization or an issue
are raised in a text. Framing theory suggests that when writers select certain frames, these
frames create and activate pre-existing knowledge networks within the brains of readers
called schema. These networks interpret new information and fill in gaps in knowledge.
Stanford communication scholar Shanto Iyengar says framing works through what is
called the “accessibility bias.”176 Accessibility bias works like this: People can’t weed
through piles of information to make decisions, so they use shortcuts, heuristics and
stereotypes instead. They rely on what is available. By measuring the frequency of
frames, scholars learn a lot. They measure what facts are made available to readers so
that certain schema can become frames.
Among the most common framing choices of political journalism is the framing
of horse-race journalism. The term horse-race journalism entered the lexicon in 1980
when political scientist C. Anthony Broh177 wrote about the focus on polling in the 1976
presidential campaign and the increasing influence of polling on news coverage. Such
coverage puts the focus on winners and losers, on polls, and on strategies, he said.
Discussion of issues and public policies get a short shrift. Writer Brian Montopoli
175
Robert M. Entman, Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion and U.S.
Foreign Policy, (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2003), 5.
176
Iyengar, Is Anyone Responsible?, 130-136.
177
C. Anthony Broh, “Horse-Race Journalism: Reporting the Polls in the 1976
Presidential Election,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 44, no. 4, (Winter, 1980), 514-529;
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2748469.
60
captured the general tenor of criticism in an article in the Columbia Journalism Review
when he said,
The sad truth is that the daily horserace mania that afflicts the
political press — the poll obsession, the theories about bounces, the inside
baseball — reduces campaign coverage to just one more form of
entertainment. The fourth estate still too often seems content to couch the
election of the leader of the free world in the language of SportsCenter.178
Broh said,
Where in all this is Rosseau’s informed and committed participant
in the events that shape his life? The horse-race image can encourage
voters to focus on exciting but ultimately irrelevant aspects of the
campaign … Issues which are complex, but not hotly debated, but more
significant, may be passed over in the search for excitement.179
Scholars Stephen Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter added more recently:
Simply put, coverage that focuses on the horserace shortchanges
candidates trying to talk about issues, and voters who are trying to think
about issues. The questions voters ask of candidates are about a lot more
than who is gaining or losing ground in the latest poll.180
Many studies mention horse-race journalism and discuss its potential impact on
elections. Scholars including Thomas Patterson,181 Kathleen Hall Jamieson, James
178
Brian Montopoli, “The Horse Race Mentality,” Columbia Journalism Review politics
column, November 12, 2004, under CJR Daily at
http://www.cjr.org/politics/the_horse_race_mentality.php?page=2, accessed October 12,
2007.
179
Broh, “Horse-Race journalism.”
180
Farnsworth, Stephen, and Lichter, S. Robert. “The Nightly News Nightmare
Revisited: Network News and the 2004 Presidential Election,” Paper presented at the
annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC,
September 01, 2005; 29, at http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p41614_index.html,
accessed May 7, 2011.
181
Thomas Patterson, Out of Order: An incisive and boldly original critique of the news
media’s domination of America’s political process. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, New
York, 1993), 53-134.
61
Capella,182 and Robert Entman183 say that the American press focuses much more on the
“game” of politics than the substance of issues. While some of these scholars use
different terms for similar concepts including concepts outside of elections themselves,
there has been a general agreement among them that this focus has a negative influence
on American democracy. In a 2005 article analyzing the use of polls in campaign
coverage for Public Opinion Quarterly, Bradlee Professor of Politics and Government at
Harvard Thomas Patterson wrote,
The Gallup organization first asked voters their satisfaction with
the presidential nominees in 1936. Through the 1960s the only nominee
who, on balance, was perceived unfavorably at the end of the campaign
was Barry Goldwater in 1964. Since then – that is, during the period of
hyper-polling – more than a third of the nominees have wound up with an
unfavorable image. Several factors account for the trend, but the tendency
of the press to cast the candidates as strategic actors, whose every move is
driven by a determination to win, is surely among them.
Nor should it occasion surprise that Americans have soured on
campaigns. Elections have become negative affairs filled with horse-race
commentary and analysis. A Vanishing Voter Project survey at the end of
the 2000 campaign found that twice as many respondents felt the
campaign was “depressing, that it hasn’t been nearly as good as a
campaign should be” as felt the campaign was “uplifting that it made
[you] feel better about elections.” The same survey found that nearly twothirds of Americans agree with the statement “political campaigns today
seem like theater or entertainment rather than like something to be taken
seriously.”184
New York University Journalism professor Jay Rosen argues the reason horserace journalism is so prevalent is that it meets the personal and professional needs of
journalists. On the progressive website Alternet, he wrote:
182
James Cappella and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Spiral of Cynicism. The Press and the
Public Good. (New York: Oxford University Press USA, 1997).
183
Entman, Projections of Power, 5.
184
Thomas E. Patterson, “Of Polls, Mountains: U.S. Journalists and Their Use of Election
Surveys,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 69, no. 5, (2005), 716-724; stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3521570
62
The biggest advantage of horse-race journalism is that it permits
reporters and pundits to “play up their detachment.” Focusing on the race
advertises the political innocence of the press because “who’s gonna
win?” is not an ideological question. By asking it you reaffirm that yours
is not an ideological profession.185
Patterson says horse-race coverage has been a growing trend. In the 1960
campaign, fewer than half of all articles focused on the horse race, but by 1992, about 80
percent of them did.186 The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s detailed 2008 study
showed horse-race coverage was the dominant frame in 2008.187 As horse-race
journalism focuses on who is winning in polls, a natural question that reporters ask is:
why? For example, when a poll suggests certain traits, such as a candidate’s religion,
hinder a candidate’s chances of winning an election, then elements of that hindrance
would logically be explored and ways the candidate might deal with those hindrances
would receive attention. It is interesting to note that pollsters asked only one or two
questions about Mormonism and George Romney’s beliefs in the 1968, whereas polls
were frequent about Mormonism in the 2008 campaign. Coverage of Mormonism was
also much more extensive in the 2008 campaign than 40 years earlier.
Some scholars say the concern over the horse race is overstated. Political
communication scholar Doris Graber says studies of news in recent years suggest “there
is more issue coverage, albeit unsystematic, than scholars have acknowledged in the
past.” Graber said many content analysis studies have missed issue coverage in news
185
Jay Rosen, “Why Horse Race Journalism Works for Journalists But Fails Us,”
Alternet, January 22, 2008, at http://www.alternet.org/media/74488?page=1, accessed
May 7, 2011.
186
Patterson, Out of Order, 74.
187
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, PEJ Campaign Coverage
Index: October 20 - 26, 2008, “As the Candidates Head Down the Stretch, Horse Race
Dominates.” at http://www.journalism.org/node/13391, accessed January 28, 2010.
63
stories because they tend to force individual news stories into one category or another for
the sake of the research – counting a story as being about the horse race or as being about
the issues, for example, when it may include elements of both. With the use of such
categorization, researchers may miss issues imbedded inside stories labeled as horse-race
stories. Audiences or scholars may overlook much of this issue coverage, she says, but
the issues are there. Graber’s research shows 25 major issues and themes received
intermittent, but regular, coverage in the printed press – as did about 20 on television –
during recent campaigns.188
The late political reporter and columnist David Broder argues the criticism of the
horse-race approach is excessive: “I am not convinced that horse-race journalism blinds
us – or the voters – to the importance of issues in the election,” he said. “Elections are
contests between individuals, not between philosophies. Voters choose between
Candidate A and Candidate B, not between liberalism and conservatism, high or low
taxes, permissive or restrictive abortion policies.”189
He gives numerous examples of presidents who changed their course in the midst
of their presidencies, despite positions and promises to the contrary, showing how
character is – and should be – the defining issue.190 Broder said, “Voters use issues to
weigh the capabilities of the candidates and to refine their own feelings about the
188
Doris Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 7th Edition. (Washington DC: CQ
Press, 2006), 234-236.
189
David Broder, Behind the Front Page: A Candid Look at How News is Made. (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 259.
190
Ibid.
64
candidates’ personalities and character. But the presidency is ultimately a test of
character,” Broder concluded.191
The debate over horse-race journalism is of no small concern. News media, some
scholars say, are taking a more important role in winnowing the field of candidates,
especially in the primary season. This role is one for which the press is poorly suited,
they say. Stanford’s Shanto Iyengar says:
As the postindustrial era has progressed, the role of grass roots
political organization and traditional partisan infrastructure has waned,
whereas the candidates turned to the electronic media as the chief means
of communication with the electorate. In the process, the role of the
ordinary citizen diminished from that occasional foot soldier and activist
to passive spectator.192
Harvard’s Thomas Patterson argues America’s election system is in danger of
losing its legitimacy.193 Patterson’s central argument is that our present system of newsmediated elections happened because of changes in the election system designed by the
parties themselves. Their goal was to increase the number of primaries, diminishing the
role of central committees. The system was designed so “rank-and-file voters would be
the kingmakers in the new system,”194 a claim, he said, that was “naïve.” He added,
The new structure was plebiscite-like, but much too complex to
enable the public to understand its choices without guidance. The system
did not pose a yes-no vote on a single issue of policy or leadership.
Rather, it asked voters to make a complex decision that is difficult even
191
Ibid., 260. For more, see Michael Janeway, Republic of Denial: Press, Politics, and
Public Life. (New Haven CN: Yale University Press, 1999), 104.
192
Shanto Iyengar, “Overview,” in Do the Media Govern? Politicians, Voters, and
Reporters in America, edited by Shanto Iyengar and Richard Reeves. (Thousand Oaks,
CA.: Sage, 1997), 144.
193
Patterson, Out of Order, 21-24
194
Ibid., 33.
65
for seasoned party professionals operating in the context of a deliberative
national convention.195
He writes evidence the system has broken is clear in the system’s immense
unpredictability.196
Doris Graber seems to disagree with arguments that voters can’t make coherent
decisions in today’s news-mediated election environment. Her summary of political
communication says that although citizens may not be able to recall specific facts, such
as the length of a term or the name of a public policy, “when interviewers probe for
understanding, rather than for specific facts, they often discover considerable political
insight.”197 Over a lifetime, voters gain awareness of “an impressive array of politically
important topics the media have covered,” she said. Graber’s take is that despite
sketchiness in coverage, despite weakness in coverage of most minor candidacies, despite
inadequate policy analysis and despite a focus on the negative, voters are “generally
satisfied with the amount of election information they receive.”198 In three recent
presidential elections before 2008, three in four felt satisfied with election coverage – and
that percentage grew to nearly 86 percent in 2004. She added that in the Internet age,
voters can find a wide variety of information on candidates if they choose to do so.
There seem to be no studies that examine how horse-race journalism operates
when religion becomes involved in a presidential campaign or when polls suggest that a
candidate’s religion will hinder the candidate’s election chances. There also seems to be
no research on how historical framing plays out in the coverage of presidential
195
Ibid., 33-34.
196
Ibid., 38-42.
197
Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 200.
198
Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 238.
66
campaigns. Clearly, however, some campaign comparisons are more favorable than
others and some are more likely to prime different images in voters’ minds. There is a
large array of literature on the challenges journalists face in religion and politics. The
literature about the mix of the two issues that make up this study – presidential elections
and their relationship to the news media and the thorny issues of media and religion
suggests that when horse-race journalism includes issues raised by a minority religion
like Mormonism, many challenges arise, as the next section shows.
2.2.a The Role of Religion in Presidential Politics.
Even though the U.S. Constitution prohibits a religious test for public office, it is
clear that voters consider the religions of candidates. 199 Because voters take religion into
consideration, it is natural for journalists to include descriptions of voter preferences and
to discuss religion in their coverage.
Polls have made it clear repeatedly that a candidate’s religion matters to voters.
First, religious devotion and a belief in religion seem necessary to be successful in
American presidential politics, polls show. Public opinion surveys show a strong majority
of Americans would feel uncomfortable voting for an atheist for president. Polls also
show some voters would choose to vote against candidates because those candidates
professed religious beliefs. A February 2007 Gallup Poll showed 4 percent of Americans
would not vote for a Catholic, 7 percent a Jew, and 24 percent a Mormon.200 A Fox poll
199
U.S. Constitution, Article VI, section 3.
200
Jeffrey M. Jones, “Some Americans Reluctant to Vote for Mormon, 72-Year-Old
Presidential Candidates; Strong support for black, women, Catholic candidates,” Gallup
News Service, February 20, 2007, at http://www.gallup.com/poll/26611/SomeAmericans-Reluctant-Vote-Mormon-72YearOld-Presidential-Candidates.aspx, accessed
January 28, 2010.
67
showed 32 percent of voters said they would be less likely to vote for a presidential
candidate who is Mormon, 45 percent less likely to vote for a Muslim and 53 percent less
likely to vote for a Scientologist.201
Many surveys over the years have shown Mormonism to be a problem for a
candidate. A Lexis-Nexis search found 52 separate questions in nearly as many surveys
about the Mormonism of a hypothetical presidential candidate.202 The answers to the
surveys have varied widely, depending on question wording, but the trends suggest Mitt
Romney’s Mormonism was a significant hurdle for many voters in 2008. Gallup and
Harris first asked a question about a Mormon candidate in 1967 during the campaign of
George Romney. Gallup asked if people would vote for a well-qualified man for
president and he happened to be a Mormon, would you vote for him. Seventy-five
percent said yes and 17 percent said no.203 Years later, a 1999 Gallup survey during the
run of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said 17 percent of Americans wouldn’t vote for their party’s
nominee if the nominee were Mormon.204
Why are some people are less likely to vote for a candidate with certain religious
beliefs? Part of the reason may be rooted in interpersonal experiences or in the history of
interactions among religious faiths, but polls also show that people often have a better
201
“Poll Recap: Mormon a Better Choice for President Than Muslim, Atheist or
Scientologist,” Foxnews.com, February 13, 2007, at
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251802,00.html, accessed March 7, 2009.
202
Search conducted on December 1, 2007.
203
Gallup Survey April 24, 1967
204
Gallup Survey March 10, 1999.
68
opinion of a religion when they know a person who practices that faith than when their
knowledge of the religion is more abstract.205
Where do people get their impressions of different faiths when they have little or
no interpersonal experience? An inescapable conclusion for some scholars is that media
have that influence. In 2007, CUNY political scientists Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio
said that media portrayals of evangelical Christians as “intolerant” influenced voters. The
pair argued that evangelicals – and the Republican Party – were hindered in the public
debate through these media portrayals. The researchers said both sides of the cultural
wars were “equally culpable in expressing intolerance toward one another,” but the news
media framed most of its reporting on the intolerance of those on the more traditional,
more religious, side of the cultural divide.
The assessment of Bolce and De Maio was that public opinion surveys showed a
deepening anti-fundamentalist bias, not just among the elite but also among the
electorate. They said, “It is our view that antifundamentalism is much more likely to be
an artifact of images conveyed about the group in political and cultural media than
engendered by encounters with group members.”206
That the same kind of media influence would be true of the public perception of
Mormonism seems likely. Mormonism, as a religion, is smaller in number than
evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. Portrayals of Mormonism historically have
205
Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio, “A Prejudice for the Thinking Classes: Media
Exposure, Political Sophistication, and the Anti-Christian Fundamentalist,” American
Politics Research 36 No. 2 (2008); originally published online November 29, 2007 at
http://apr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/36/2/155, accessed March 7, 2009. 160- 162.
206
Ibid., 160-162.
69
included a focus on its idiosyncrasies, including on the historical practice of polygamy
and on its supposed secrecy.207
In 2000, the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, working on a
grant from Pew, said coverage of religion grew between 1969 and 1999, doubling in the
1990s.208 The study said the most frequent topic of religious coverage involved the
relationship of religion to politics. Internal controversies were the second most frequent
story. Only 7 percent of the stories in the Center’s study mentioned religious beliefs –
there was little explanation of theology or doctrine. One example cited was news a
controversy involving George W. Bush’s visit to Bob Jones University during the 2000
campaign. The university’s policies on interracial contact were discussed, but the
Biblical arguments relating to the policies were not. “This widespread absence of
references to theology or spirituality in daily journalism may marginalize the role of faith
in public discourse about religion,” the study said.209
Scholars and pundits have found many reasons to criticize religious coverage for
many years, saying journalists tend to be more secular than the religious people they
cover. Potential weakness in the day-to-day of religious coverage may be tempered by
journalism’s professional norms of fairness and objectivity, but studies show that
reporters as a group have a different worldview than the religious people they cover.210
207
See Appendix J for a fuller discussion of the coverage of Mormonism historically.
208
The Center for Media and Public Affairs, “The Media Get Religion: National Media
Coverage of Religion, 1969-1998,” in Media Monitor, XIV, no. 3, May/June 2000, at
http://www.cmpa.com/files/media_monitor/00mayjun.pdf.
209
Ibid., 3.
210
In two unpublished pilot studies looking for dissertation topics, I researched which
major influence groups received coverage in the major U.S. news media. In a list of
more than 50 groups and a population of more than 6,000 stories, I found news articles
70
In their study of journalists in the 1980s, Lichter, Rothman and Lichter found journalists
were much less likely to be churchgoers than Americans at large.211 In 2004, Pew
reported finding a contrast between the personal beliefs of average Americans and
journalists. About 60 percent of Americans in the Pew study felt a belief in God is
necessary to be moral, but only one in 10 national journalists agreed. Nearly 90 percent
of journalists working at the national level said they were accepting of homosexuality
while only about half the population reported feeling that way.212
In 1987, the late political reporter David Broder wrote that “secularism” is a
blinder for journalists – one they needed to adjust.213 Broder said:
I am not suggesting that we “get religion.” But we certainly should
not let the secularism that pervades the journalistic culture keep us from
dealing intelligently and sensitively – without cynicism – with the many
leaders and citizens in this nation who draw strength and motivation from
that mentioned these groups. These were common groups, such as the Sierra Club,
Brookings Institution, the NAACP, and the National Rifle Association. The group that,
by far, received the most coverage – more than 20 percent of the total of these more than
50 groups – was the American Civil Liberties Union, the great supporter of the separation
of church and state, the archetype of a secular America during the Scopes trial and since.
My second preliminary study was an unfinished, unpublished framing analysis – using
grounded theory – of the admission by Congressman Pete Stark that he was an atheist. In
the 30 or so articles that covered this issue, Stark was covered very favorably – as a
courageous supporter of diversity and the Constitutional rights of all people to believe
what they will. Both studies seemed to support the idea of a secular press.
211
Stanley Lichter, S. Rothman, and Linda Lichter, The Media Elite: America’s New
Power- brokers. (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986), 21-53, as cited in “How the
Media Vote,” Media Research Center, under Media Bias Basics, at
http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics3.asp, accessed August 5, 2010, and as cited in
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, The Religious Roots of a Secular Press, 296-297.
212
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “Press Coverage now hurt by
bottom-line coverage, Press going too easy on Bush, Part IV, Values and the Press,” May
23, 2004, http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=829, accessed November
30, 2007.
213
Broder, Behind the Front Page, 334-335.
71
their religious beliefs.214
Gal Beckerman wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2004:
However central belief and faith might be to the American
populace, our news media seldom puncture the surface in their reporting
on religion. The various institutions are scrutinized, sometimes with great
rigor, as a former cardinal in Boston might confirm. But it generally takes
scandal or spectacle to get even the large denominations on the front
page… The journalist glances at religious community as if staring through
the glass of an ant farm, remarking on what the strange creatures are
doing.215
In 2006, Tom Kunkel commented in the American Journalism Review that
journalism’s issues with religion were brought into focus for him by the success of Mel
Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ:
For a generation the mainstream media often ignored these people
– their readers and viewers, mind you – and even now there remains an
undercurrent of derision from some reporters toward the faith-based views
millions hold on such important issues as abortion and evolution.216
Asbury College professor Peter A. Kerr showed that fundamentalist Christians
were framed in a generally unfavorable light by the network news between 1980 and
2000: “Fundamentalists are reported in a consistent, mildly negative manner. …
Although often portrayed as being somewhat intolerant, racist, violent, and prone to
214
Ibid., 335.
215
Gal Beckerman, “Across the Great Divide, Why Don’t Journalists Get Religion, A
Tenuous Bridge to Believers,” Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2004.
http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2004/3/beckerman-faith.asp, accessed November 30, 2007.
216
Tom Kunkel, “Have a Little Faith: At last the Mainstream Media Get Religion.”
American Journalism Review, Jun/Jul 2006, 4. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4122,
accessed January 26, 2010. He argued, nevertheless, that things were improving.
72
impose their views on others, fundamentalists are also depicted as being somewhat
patriotic.”217
Kerr and his colleague Patricia Moy found similar results in an analysis of
newspapers – a study of 2,243 newspaper articles published between 1980 and 2000.218
The pair found that coverage of fundamentalists had grown significantly over the years
from about a dozen articles a year in 1980 to more than 200 a year in 2000. They found
coverage of fundamentalists to be somewhat unbalanced and somewhat unfavorable.
When they used a 1-to-5 Likert scale to measure the balance with which journalists
covered fundamentalists – with 5 being the most balanced and 1 least –– the mean was
2.45 – somewhat less than balanced overall. The study also used a 1-100 “thermometer
rating” to measure how warmly fundamentalist Christians were portrayed by the articles
overall, with 100 being the warmest possible impression and 1 the coldest, and the mean
rating in the study was 41.8 – somewhat cool. When they used a 1-5 Likert-type scale
with 5 being the most tolerant and 1 the least tolerant, the scholars found that media
coverage portrayed fundamentalists as “somewhat intolerant,” at 1.96 on their Likert-type
scale. When they used a similar scale to measure how law-abiding fundamentalists were
with 5 being the most law abiding and 1 the least, they found that media portrayed
fundamentalists as “somewhat criminal-minded,” 2.16 on their 1-5 scale. When Kerr
and Moy used a 1-to-4 Likert-type scale to measure the degree to which coverage
portrayed fundamentalists as imposing their views on others, with 1 being the least
217
Peter A. Kerr, “The Framing of Fundamentalist Christians 1980-2000,” Journal of
Media and Religion, 2, no. 4, (2003), 203.
218
Peter A. Kerr and Patricia Moy, “Newspaper Coverage of Fundamentalist Christians,
1980-2000,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; 79, no. 1, (Spring 2002),
54-55; 59.
73
forceful and 4 the most forceful, the authors’ mean was 2.84 or “somewhat forceful in
imposing its views on others.” The pair also found that news coverage portrayed
fundamentalists as “somewhat involved in politics” (3.10 on a 1-to-4 scale with 4 being
the most involved) and portrayed fundamentalists as “somewhat violent” (2.78 on a 1-to4 scale with 4 being the most violent).
Opinion journalists were less favorable than news journalists were in the
coverage, they said. Overall, the scholars said, newspapers were “slightly cool but not
cold” toward fundamentalist Christians.
Despite the preponderance of commentary that news media are secular and
struggle in the coverage of religion, there is a conflicting view saying coverage has
grown too accepting of religious belief. This view does not suggest the news media share
the same worldview and values as religious people, but the media, nevertheless, show too
much tolerance for religion.219 Reporter Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on
Science, and The Ohio State University media scholar Matthew Nisbet in a cover story in
CJR, said that when reporters use the journalistic norm of balance to describe some
controversies involving religion and science, distortion can result. Here’s how: when an
issue like intelligent design conflicts with essential scientific consensus, distortion results
when that issue is presented as a debate between two equal points of view. Such efforts
to be “balanced” distorts because the two sides aren’t deserving of equal treatment and
coverage because the scientific, intellectual arguments don’t carry equal weight, and
219
Michael Kinsley,“The Lord and Richard Scrushy,” Washington Post, Sunday, July 3,
2007, B07, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070101819.html, accessed November 30, 2007.
74
readers might assume the two points of view are equal.220
Similarly, Mark Silk, a media and religion scholar and former journalist, says the
U.S. news media are “unsecular.” He says many of the stories about religion are about
the good works of people who believe in religion. Whether it is girls in their fine Easter
dresses or stories of Christmas charity, religious stories “presuppose” religion is a good
thing.221 He says the framing of religion through common templates, which he calls
“topoi,” excludes some religions from the religious mainstream and charts the range of
appropriate religious discourse.222 His argument and discourse analysis suggest a
conservative status quo may benefit from religious portrayals that set the tone of
appropriate religious practice, and, at the same time, hinder smaller or newer religions.
At least one recent study has supported parts of this view. Harvey Hill, John
Hickman and Joel McLendon of Berry College completed a detailed content analysis of
the coverage of religious groups and their expectations of the coming of the millennium
in 1999 and 2000.223 The researchers found that the terms reporters used to describe
smaller groups, such as the Falun Gong in China, included terms such as “cult,” while the
terms used to describe more established groups, including evangelicals, were more likely
to be neutral terms such as “church.” They found that as mainstream groups talked of
their idiosyncratic millennial expectations, those expectations received less coverage than
220
Chris Mooney and Matthew Nisbet, “Undoing Darwin,” Columbia Journalism
Review, September/October 2005, http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2005/5/mooney.asp,
accessed December 1, 2007.
221
Silk, Unsecular Media, 57.
222
Silk uses Mormonism as an example of how his topoi of religion excluded Mormons
from the mainstream in the 19th century.
223
Harvey Hill, John Hickman, and Joel McLendon, “Cults and Sects and Doomsday
Groups, Oh My: Media Treatment of Religion on the Eve of the Millennium,” Review of
Religious Research, 43, no. 1, (2001): 24-38.
75
smaller religious groups’ expectations, and also that the coverage of the so-called “cults’”
millennial beliefs was less favorable.224 The researchers said this unfavorable coverage
of small, emergent religious groups can have grave consequences because these religious
groups can develop a sense of being besieged – a sense that can increase the chance for
violence or for a spiral of misunderstanding.225 Their results suggested that:
... more mainstream religious groups are typically described in
neutral or favorable terms, while new religious movements are
consistently described in pejorative language. This bias against new
religious movements is troubling because the media can have a profoundly
negative influence on the perception of religious group members by
outsiders.226
Mormonism is cited as an outsider religion by Silk – that is, not part of the
mainstream. He uses 19th century coverage of Mormon polygamy to show that reporters
establish a realm of acceptable religious belief.227 One of the central takeaways from
Silk’s work for the purposes of this study, therefore, is that when journalists focus on the
good works of a religious organization, the group is seen as mainstream. When what is
odd in belief becomes the focus of coverage, the group is excluded from the mainstream.
Some researchers have found the gap between journalists’ beliefs and those of the
people they cover may not be as wide as some conservative believers suspect, a report
from the First Amendment Center said. However, the report said journalists and editors
did say they believed in religion and were less secular personally than was expected, and
these writers harbored less animus toward traditional believers than was previously
224
Ibid., 31.
225
Ibid., 35.
226
Ibid., 24.
227
Silk, Unsecular Media, 91-105.
76
understood.228 The study’s authors, John Dart, a former religion reporter for the Los
Angeles Times, and Jimmy Allen, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention,
found much of the problem with the relationship with the press and religion was simple
misunderstanding:
Americans who practice religion and Americans who practice
journalism often perceive each other as perplexing and troublesome, an
ironic situation since the activities of both are sheltered under the same
constitutional amendment. It’s almost as if the two groups were separated
by wind-blown waters as difficult to cross as the Red Sea.229
The study showed conflict about what was expected of the national press –
religious believers thought the press ought to inspire, but the press thought its job was to
portray the facts.230 A 2000 update to that study indicated that the press had made some
strides in improving the coverage of religion.231
Doug Underwood’s From Yahweh to Yahoo! acknowledges a secular bent among
journalists but shows, using both historical methods and survey analysis, that reporting’s
culture actually comes from religious roots, and that many values held by individual
journalists spring from religious traditions.232 The Center for Media and Public Policy’s
2000 study said journalists’ attendance at church doubled in the 1990s, though it still
trailed the public at large.233 Though there is a secular bent to modern journalism, such
228
John Dart and Jimmy Allen, Bridging the Gap: Religion and the News Media,
(Nashville:Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, 2000), at
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/bridgingthegap.PDF, accessed
November 30, 2007.
229
Ibid., 5.
230
Ibid., 6.
231
Ibid., ii.
232
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, 117-216.
233
Center for Media and Public Policy, “The Media Get Religion,” 6.
77
studies suggest it is not fair to say journalism sits in strident opposition to religion or to
religious believers.
2.2.b Journalistic Challenges in Covering Religion
Three important reasons why professional norms may make it something of a
challenge for journalists to cover religion are found in the literature.
First, journalists follow conflict. Standard lists of news values include conflict as
a key way decisions about news coverage get made.234 When reporters focus on conflict,
they focus on scandal within churches, as in the clergy abuse scandals; on doctrinal
schism, as in the decision to ordain women or gay pastors; on controversies between
faiths, as in when Jewish groups who complained to Mormons of their practice of
baptizing people for the dead; and on legal controversies involving churches, as in the
decision to build a mosque overlooking ground zero or in court controversies touching on
intelligent design. All of these were legitimate news stories, but by focusing on conflict
as the leading news value, journalists may have missed the nuance and faith at the heart
of the religious experience. One study shows how overemphasis on conflict might play
out. Missouri State University journalism professor Mark Paxton evaluated the coverage
of a flag controversy in Missouri in which a small town put a fish symbol, seen as a
symbol of Christianity, on the town flag. The press focused on the controversy, framing
the controversy as trivial or as a “Holy War” – as a fight between outsiders and insiders.
In doing so, the coverage “may have marginalized a significant dispute involving
234
See, for example, Melvin Mencher’s list from his text, as posted at
http://www.uamont.edu/facultyweb/sitton/lnx/values.html, under news values, accessed
August 5, 2010.
78
separation of church and state.”235
The second way journalists struggle when they try to cover religion is the
emphasis on the news value of unusualness, sometimes referred to as “oddity.” As with
conflict, oddity – as in when a man bites a dog – is a long-established news value.236
Unusualness and oddity always imply a comparison: “Unusual to whom?” “As compared
to what?” Secular journalists, therefore, might be expected to pick out the unconventional
and idiosyncratic characteristics of religions, especially those outside of a generally
accepted religious mainstream. St. John’s University history professor Nerina Rustomji
showed in her research how this has happened with Islam. Rustomji studied media
portrayals of the Houri – the doctrinal, Islamic idea that beautiful maidens await
righteous men in the afterlife, sometimes referred to as the 72-virgins. She writes that
journalists presented the doctrine in ways that portrayed Muslims as “less than
rational.”237 Similarly, in the Columbia Journalism Review, Katia Bachko, wrote late in
the 2008 campaign about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s Pentecostal
faith. Bachko complained that CNN focused too much on the seemingly unusual
Pentecostal practice of speaking in tongues:
I’m not an expert on the group, but I imagine that its core beliefs
also have something to do with Christianity and good works and all that,
and not just an easily ridiculed spiritual experience. By treating the topic
with condescension, they alienate viewers and play into the hands of those
235
Mark Paxton, “Gone Fishin’: A Framing Analysis of a Small Towns City Seal,”
Journal of Media and Religion. 3 no. 1 (February 2004), 53.
236
Ronald Sitton, “News Values,” University of Arkansas, Monticello, under News
Values http://www.uamont.edu/facultyweb/sitton/lnx/values.html, accessed August 15,
2010. Mencher, Melvin, Melvin Mencher’s News Reporting and Writing, 10th edition,
Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
237
Nerina Rustomji, “American Visions of the Houri,” The Muslim World, 97:1 (January
2007), 79-92.
79
who rail against the media’s purported liberal bias.238
Secular journalism struggles particularly with the other-worldly claims put
forward by religious believers – the claims of visions, of inspiration and of heavenly
angels – something important in Mormonism, as well as other religions. In his book From
Yahweh to Yahoo!, Doug Underwood asks his audience to imagine journalism mixing
with the early Christian church. He cites the early Gnostic Gospel of Mary and describes
a purported encounter between Mary Magdalene and the early apostles. In it, Mary has
supposedly seen the risen Lord who has taught her the gospel that should be taught.
According to Underwood, Mary’s story was undercut, and the doctrine she espoused
defeated, in the politics of the early church. Underwood wondered how a modern
journalist would have covered this important event.239 He writes,
Whether or not one takes seriously the possibility that a person
(journalist or otherwise) could experience supernatural phenomena, it is
clear there is little place in modern “objective” newspaper methodology
for such a report. (I would suggest that such an account would even have
trouble getting printed in the typical letters-to-the-editor section.)240
Journalistic methodology – where a claim is presented and rebuttals given – is
one that Underwood says “ultimately presents journalists as throwing up their hands and
saying to readers, ‘You decide.’ This is held up as a good thing.” Underwood argues that
journalists would not try to verify Mary’s account, but would merely report both sides of
238
Katia Bachko, “Tongue tied on religion. CNN Takes on Pentecostalism,” Columbia
Journalism Review, CJR.org, September 9, 2008, under campaign desk, at
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/tongue_tied_on_religion.php, accessed August 5,
2010.
239
To be sure, Mormons are no Gnostics and do not hold the Gospel of Mary to be
canonical. The point here is that the thought experiment in some ways mirrors the
problem journalists have in dealing with Mormonism’s extra-worldly claims.
240
Ibid., 241.
80
this religious controversy – including her attributed claims of the supernatural – and
frame it through the lens of existing conflict and politics.241
Mormonism, with its history of golden plates and prophets and religious journeys
and temples, contains beliefs that are both other-worldly and different from other
branches of Christianity. Hence, it could be easy to make Mormonism appear unusual
when focusing on those beliefs and practices, which can be termed as unusual in contrast
with other faiths. The trouble for journalists is sometimes those differences can matter
politically. If one group of believers finds the doctrine of another group troubling, such
concerns affect voting. These concerns with oddity drive news and elucidate politics.
A third important way the more secular culture of journalism and the culture of
religion seem to differ is in the meaning and dilemma of silence. Journalists are
suspicious of silence and of concepts that defy explanation, while such mysteries can be
essential to most religions. The culture of journalism is a culture of openness that
trumpets an aversion to secrecy.242 The evidence of journalism’s culture of openness, of
its aversion to secrecy, is clear from the fact that journalism, which rarely lobbies for
bills on most issues, lobbied strongly in favor of the original Freedom of Information
Act.243 Journalists tout the principles of openness by sponsoring Sunshine Week, 244 and
241
Ibid., 242-243.
242
To be sure, this analysis is somewhat simplistic. Journalism sometimes finds heroes
among those who keep secrets – when an investigative reporter suffers jail rather than
give up a source. And Mormon religion, among others, also includes warnings about
“secret combinations.”
243
Blanton, Thomas, editor, National Security Archive, “Freedom of Information at 40,
LBJ Refused Ceremony, Undercut Bill with Signing Statement,” at the National Security
Archive at George Washington University,
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB194/index.htm, accessed June 1,
2009.
81
in arguing for the people’s “right to know.” The American Society of Newspaper Editors
makes openness an ethical obligation when it says, “Journalists must be constantly alert
to see that the public’s business is conducted in public.”245 Furthermore, modern, secular
culture – of which journalism seems a part – embraces an ideal where “nothing is
misunderstood, hearts are open, and expression is uninhibited.”246 Much of Western,
secular society and journalism see silence as a spiral that controls debate and eliminates
dissent;247 it sees silence as “an abyss or lack that inhibits one’s ability to make
meaning.”248
On the other hand, religion, including Mormonism, sometimes embraces silence
as essential or sacred. For example, communication historian John Durham Peters notes
that ritual has long been considered a form of communication.249 Eastern religions place a
high value on silent meditation. Silence becomes, “a condition of emptiness that is,
paradoxically, full.”250 Jewish and Christian traditions cite the Psalms injunction of being
244
See http://www.sunshineweek.org. This site is sponsored and run by the American
Society of Newspaper Editors.
245
American Society of Newspaper Editors, “ASNE Statement of Principles,” at
http://www.asne.org/article_view/articleid/325/asnes-statement-of-principles-325.aspx,
accessed January 27, 2010.
246
Peters, Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press 1999), 2.
247
Elihu Katz, “Publicity and pluralistic ignorance: notes on the ‘Spiral of Silence,’” in
McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory, 379-389, edited by Denis McQuail,
(London:Sage, 2002); See also Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, “Spiral of Silence, A Theory
of Public Opinion,” Journal of Communication, 24 (1974), 43-51, As cited in Katz, 388.
248
George Kalamaras, Reclaiming the Tacit Dimension: Symbolic Form in the Rhetoric
of Silence. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994), 1.
249
John Durham Peters, “Communication,” in Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication,
and Media, ed. Daniel A. Stout. (New York: Routledge, 2006), 83-86.
250
Kalamaras ,1 and 1- 12.
82
still and knowing God.251 Furthermore, recent published writings from Mother Teresa
suggest silence was at the core of her religious journey. The famous nun developed in her
later career a personal perception of long estrangement from God’s love, and she felt only
stone silence from heaven when she prayed. God’s silence in her heart caused suffering,
which led, in the end, to a painful journey to a communion and closeness to Christ.
How? As her suffering grew, she became closer to and more understanding of
Christ because she understood his burden better. So, in silence, there was ultimate
coming-together – there was communication.252 The point here is to suggest that a
religious embrace of silence clashes with the culture of openness in the more secular
world.
One stereotype of Mormonism is that it is secretive. Indeed, one of the top
pejoratives American voters say when thinking of Mormons is that they are “secretive”
and “deceptive.”253 Mormons believe in sacred silence about facets of their worship. At a
forum for journalists during the campaign, Mormon scholar Richard Bushman explained
it this way:
This goes along with this “secret life” of Mormons. … What do
they do when it comes down to it? Do they shun people and beat them up
and so on? That has always been part of the story of Mormonism - you
know, the “hidden horrors” of Mormonism - these advanced doctrines, and
then the temple, because Mormons insist on saying it’s sacred, not secret but it is secret.254
251
Ps. 46:10.
252
Brian Kolodiejchuk, Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light. The Private Writings of the
‘Saint of Calcutta’, (New York: Doubleday, 2007, 149-340.
253
Pew 2007.
254
Richard Bushman, “Mormonism and Politics: Are they compatible?” Pew Forum’s
biannual Faith Angle Conference, May 14, 2007, under event transcript,
83
In addition to secrecy and its potential unusualness, Mormonism poses other
unique challenges for journalists that will be discussed in the next section of this study.
2.2.c The Challenge of Writing about Mormonism
Mormonism is a faith with a deep, detailed, varied doctrine and a long history of
persecution and misunderstanding in America. It is a challenge to simply describe the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Is it a sect of Christianity? Is it a “cult?”
What of polygamy? Confusion persists: For example, a central finding of a detailed study
done after the Mitt Romney campaign by pollster Gary Lawrence found most people
don’t understand Mormonism.255 Pew has found similar results.256
In a 2007 New York Times essay, Harvard law professor and adjunct senior fellow
of the Council on Foreign Relations, non-Mormon Noah Feldman suggested that
Mormonism’s misunderstanding problem is ultimately imbedded in a paradox:
Mormonism’s political problem arises, in large part, from the
disconcerting split between its public and private faces. The church’s most
inviting public symbols – pairs of clean-cut missionaries in well-pressed
white shirts – evoke the wholesome success of an all-American
denomination with an idealistic commitment to clean living. Yet at the
same time, secret, sacred temple rites and garments call to mind the
church’s murky past, including its embrace of polygamy, which has not
been the doctrine or practice of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, or LDS, for a century. Mormonism, it seems, is extreme
in both respects: in its exaggerated normalcy and its exaggerated
http://pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Mormonism-and-Politics-Are-TheyCompatible.aspxm, accessed August 10, 2010.
255
Gary C. Lawrence., How Americans View Mormonism, Seven Steps to Improve Our
Public Image, (Orange, CA: Parameter Foundation, 2008), 5.
256
Scott Keeter, “How the Public Perceives Romney, Mormons, Candidate Recently
Discussed Role of Religion in Public Life,” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life,
December 4, 2007, at http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=267, accessed August 19, 2009.
84
oddity. The marriage of these opposites leaves outsiders
uncomfortable, wondering what Mormonism really is.257
In the early stages of the Romney campaign, Richard Bushman, a Mormon and
leading historian, made a similar point in speaking to a gathering of journalists held by
Pew in Key West:
It is a little bit difficult to talk about Mormonism and its
relationship to Romney because it’s so unclear what Mormonism is. We
have divided views of Mormons. On the one hand, Mormonism and
Mormons are suspect, they are forbidding, and under the nice exterior
there is something menacing. On the other hand, Mormonism is the
archetypical American religion. Mormons are ideal model citizens, and
they are very nice people.258
Getting at the essence of Mormonism therefore is a unique challenge for
reporters.259 Four reasons within the literature seem central to this challenge in covering
Mormonism, one of the nation’s fastest-growing religions.260 First is the dilemma of how
much space journalists have in which to explain Mormonism or any religious system.
Second is a challenge of knowing how to deal with the faith’s paradox of being in the
American mainstream or not; third is in knowing how to deal with Mormonism’s history
of polygamy; and fourth is in knowing how to fit Mormonism into broader parts of the
Christian world.
First, journalists lack space to write complicated explanations of belief. This is an
axiomatic statement. Journalists face tight deadlines and short spaces and many
257
Noah Feldman, “What is it About Mormonism?” New York Times, January 6, 2008,
emphasis added.
258
Pew forum, “Mormonism and Politics: Are they compatible?”
259
See appendix K for a detailed discussion of central Mormon beliefs.
260
Rodney Stark, “The basis of Mormon Success: a Theoretical Application,” in
Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to An American World Religion, edited by
Eric Eliason. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 207.
85
competitive and market pressures that hinder detailed treatments of faith. Michael Luo of
the New York Times, quoted leading Mormon scholar Jan Shipps as saying: “Mormonism
is very complicated. It can sound elegant when the tenets are taken together … but
bizarre when considered in parts.”261
In Pew’s 2007 survey, 5 percent of responders used a word like “different” or
“weird” or “unusual” to describe Mormonism in one word. Mormonism is perceived as
so unusual that many commentators and evangelical Christians call it a “cult.”262 Google
searches generate hundreds of thousands of hits for a joint search of the terms “Mormon”
and “cult.”263 During the campaign, atheist Christopher Hitchens called Mormonism the
“mad cult.”264 Add words such as “cult” into Pew’s study, and Mormonism’s being
perceived as unusual rises to more than 10 percent of all the answers respondents gave in
their one-word descriptions of Mormonism.265 To be sure, definitions of the word “cult”
vary. This study relies on a common-sense, dictionary definition of cult – “a relatively
small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange
or sinister.”266
261
Michael Luo, “Crucial Test for Romney in Speech on His Religion,” New York Times,
December 6, 2007.
262
Examples include Mormoncult.org and Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry,
http://carm.org/religious-movements/-about-cults/list-cults-and-non-christian-groups,
accessed October 8, 2010.
263
Search conducted October 8, 2010.
264
Christopher Hitchens, “Mitt The Mormon. Why Romney has to talk about his faith,”
Slate, Novenber 26, 2007, under Fighting Words: A Wartime Lexicon, at
http://www.slate.com/id/2178568/, accessed October 8, 2010.
265
Pew Research Center, “People expressed Mixed Views of Mormonism, Islam.”
266
Macintosh dictionary.
86
Second, as Feldman emphasized, Mormonism’s public face can seem paradoxical.
In his talk to journalists, Bushman said, “Someone has said that Mormon doctrine should
best be described as a set of dilemmas - as contradictory goods posed against one
another.”267 One paradox is Mormonism’s relationship to the mainstream of American
life: Mormons overcame persecution, hardship and trial over decades to find their way
toward a promised land of American acceptance and tolerance – toward the mainstream
and toward success. In 2007, for example, PBS’ Frontline and American Experience
collaborated to produce a documentary on the faith. This quest story is implicit in the
show’s introduction:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of
America’s fastest-growing religions and, relative to its size, one of the
richest. Church membership, now at over 12 million and growing, sweeps
the globe. But from the moment of its founding in 1830, the church has
been controversial. Within a month, it had 40 converts and almost as many
enemies. In the early years, Mormons were hated, ridiculed, persecuted
and feared. Yet in the past several decades, the Mormon church has
transformed itself from a fringe sect into a thriving religion that embraces
mainstream American values.268
To be sure, the definition of mainstream is socially constructed. This study relies
on a common-sense definition of the term that mainstream means what is “regarded as
normal or conventional; … the dominant trend”269 In religious circles, conventional can
generally mean Protestant Christianity or Christianity more broadly.
The scholarly literature suggests this quest story has been on the minds of
scholars: As the non-Mormon scholar of Mormonism Jan Shipps has noted, media
267
Pew forum, “Mormonism and Politics: Are they compatible?”
268
“Introduction,” The Mormons, PBS documentary, synopsis.
http://www.pbs.org/mormons/etc/synopsis.html, accessed March 4, 2009, emphasis
added. See also Rachel Zoll, “Hard Lessons for Mormon church in Romney’s
presidential campaign,” February 9, 2008. Associated Press.
269
See Macintosh dictionary.
87
coverage has made Mormons appear more mainstream over the course of its 180-year
history. In the 19th century, Mormonism was almost always portrayed negatively in the
American press, and there was no other American religion held in such “disquiet” for
such a long time, she writes.270 The early media stereotypes tended to include a dark
danger of deception and secretiveness and sometimes portrayals of sexual deviants and of
violent extremism. Early 20th Century portrayals continued these themes while adding
others about perceived Mormon influence and power, including muckracking exposes
that suggested the nation’s leaders were giving obeisance to Mormon leaders.271 By the
mid-20th Century, however, portrayals of Mormons had changed and were very
favorable.272 The coverage of Mormonism has remained somewhat favorable since that
time, studies show. Therefore, the overall arc of the coverage may suggest to some that
the coverage of Mormonism has become more mainstream.
Beginning in the 1990s, many scholars, especially observers who weren’t Mormon,
began to suggest that Mormonism seemed to represent a set of traditional, mainstream
American values. “The situation was such that it became not at all uncommon to hear, in
academic presentations at American studies meetings, that Mormons are ‘more American
than the Americans,’” Shipps said.273 A leading advocate for that view was Mario De
Pillis, a UM Amherst scholar who studied Mormonism throughout much of his
professional life as a non-Mormon. He wrote that “something has changed” in the
270
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 51-97.
271
For a full discussion of these issues and related footnotes, see Appendix J.
272
For a detailed discussion of Mormon portrayals in the news media and the sourcing on
this section, please see Appendices I and J.
273
Jan Shipps, “Surveying the Mormon Image Since 1960,” in Sojourner in the Promised
Land, Forty Years among the Mormons, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000),
100.
88
relationship of Mormonism to society since 1945. “The Latter-day Saints now have both
political and social influence through their committed members and will, therefore,
participate in the redefining of America.”274 Mormonism, he said, has also come to
represent traditionally conservative American values.
The past image of Mormons as polygamists made them into
immoral cartoon types outside America’s mainstream. Now the social
myth of Mormonism has become more positive: The Tabernacle Choir,
clean-cut teams of missionaries, domination of Rocky Mountain
corporations, numerous employees among the FBI, the CIA and the Boy
Scouts and intact, father-headed families. Mormonism’s new and positive
image enhances its mythic status as a national American icon, a set of
symbolic meanings against which both rarefied intellectuals and ordinary
folks who admire Mormon family morality can measure the meaning of
America.275
Others, especially Latter-day Saints, took a different view. One Latter-day Saint
scholar, Chiung Hwang Chen, suggested the national discourse shows that Mormons are
still minorities, not part of the mainstream. She said that while many 20th century news
274
Mario S. De Pillis, “The Emergence of Mormon Power since 1945,” Journal of
Mormon History, 22, No. 1(1995), 3.
275
Ibid., 5. Mormonism’s importance, in De Pillis’s view, was also shown in that it was
central to Tony Kushner’s landmark play, Angels in America. De Pillis says Mormonism
becomes the symbol of the American heartland in the play. This Mormonism, conceals a
“hollow, sweet center” in the play. “Mormonism becomes the plays real antagonist, while
suffering gay America is the protagonist.” De Pillis says that Kushner chose Mormonism
“because it represents—not only to him but also to his audience—a constellation of
conservative, deeply held American beliefs.” De Pillis added, “It is not going too far to
say that, for Kushner and his very large audience, traditional America is Mormonism.”
Kushner’s play’s title is a reference to Mormonism’s Angel Moroni. Some of the faith’s
central tenants are ridiculed during the play even as some Mormon characters are
admirable. In the play, sexual ecstasy is the redemptive metaphor for human beings, and
a repressed Mormon character is redeemed during the play. Ibid., 5-8. Terryl Givens, the
Mormon literary critic, sees irony in Kushner’s play. For more than a century, Mormons
were dangerous threats because they were sexual letches through the practice of
polygamy. Then, in the portrayals of Mormonism in the late 20th century, Mormons
became dangerous because they were sexually repressed. See Givens, The Viper on the
Hearth,164.
89
stories portrayed Mormons as having mainstream American values, those same portrayals
showed that Mormons themselves weren’t mainstream through a continued focus on
topics such as Mormon polygamy, Mormon treatment of blacks and women, and
Mormon underwear. Chen says despite a certain “American vision” of family-orientation,
hard work, and patriotism, “the discourse abundantly signals that Mormons remain a notcompletely-assimilable minority.” 276 In her doctoral dissertation at the University of
Iowa, a subsequent book for the Edwin Mellen Press, and a pair of scholarly papers, Chen
relied on a theory derived from the Asian-American studies literature called the “model
minority” discourse. Chen’s suggests the “model” characteristics of minorities in the
discourse serve an ideological purpose by reinforcing a conservative status quo. Writing
with her husband, Ethan Yorgason, she defined the discourse, its definition and the
process of identifying model minority groups:
Each term of the phrase “model minority discourse” is important.
It glorifies certain culturally dominant values and practices. And it
positions a group of people as representative of, but not full participants in
the social life of the majority.277 … Might not [the discourses] actually
reinscribe a more sophisticated form of marginalization upon Mormons in
America? Other groups have found themselves damned by profuse praise.
The pedestal restricted white women’s social power, and Asian-American
scholars argue that setting up Asian-Americans as an example of
American success has deeply troubling implications both for AsianAmericans themselves and other minorities.278
276
Chuing Hwang Chen, Mormon and Asian American Model Minority Discourses in
News and Popular Magazines, (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), 67-131.
Note, also, the use of wealth in the opening introduction to the PBS series on the faith.
277
Chiung Hwang Chen and Ethan Yorgason, “The Media’s Construction of Mormons as
Model Minorities,” Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought, 32 No.2 (Summer 1999),
108.
278
Ibid., 110.
90
Asian-American scholar Keith Okajima said the model minority discourse
appeared in the Civil Rights movement and became a model for understanding how all
ethnic groups could succeed. 279 “Asian Americans, we were told, were able to make it
on their own. Welfare programs were unnecessary.”280 The discourse diffused the Black
Power movement, he writes, because it seemed to show that America wasn’t a
“fundamentally racist society.” Instead, it was a merit-based society, and it “placed the
blame for inequality,” not on society or culture, but on minorities themselves. In short,
this narrative caused problems for the minorities themselves and became a way to
maintain traditional power relationships. What interests might a “model minority”
portrayal of Mormonism have served? Chen, quoting other scholars as well as making her
own conclusions, showed how Mormonism in the 1930s created a self-sufficient rebuke
to the New Deal and therefore supported a conservative worldview. In the 1960s, the
portrayal of Mormonism served as a rebuke to the counterculture hippie movement and
seemingly served as a model of traditional American success, a celebration of so-called
“traditional” values such as hard work and thrift, Chen argued.
Beyond the “model minority” discourse, another way of looking at the idea that
Mormons wish to enter the mainstream and are successfully doing so is that the quest
narrative is useful to a majority – the mainstream – because insofar as Mormons have
overcome the odds through effort to achieve this successful quest for mainstream
acceptance, this quest story validates the myth of diversity acceptance for all. The story
279
Keith Okajima, “Asian Americans as the Model Minority,” in Reflections on Shattered
Windows: Promises and Prospects for Asian American Studies, ed. G.Y. Okihiro, S.
Hune, A.A. Hansen, and J.M. Liu, (Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press),
165-174.
280
Ibid., 167.
91
becomes an emblem of how American values of tolerance and thrift and self-reliance
work well, thereby supporting these “mainstream” values. This quest story provides an
element of redemption: Americans were bad in the past in their persecutions of Mormons,
but now as Mormons have reached the mainstream and have overcome this past, the nonminority sin of persecution is justified and erased.
The price for this redemption must be paid by the suffering of “the Other.”
Mormons, or any minority group, validate the mainstream in this narrative because their
quest is to be part of that existing mainstream. The minority’s suffering redeems the
mainstream because these groups chose to come there. The quest story, therefore,
scapegoats the minority, letting the pre-existing “mainstream” off the hook. In such a
narrative, a powerful group or majority defines what the mainstream is and what steps
must be followed to attain the quest. This common narrative form, therefore, can
ultimately be used as a narrative of power, exclusion and hegemony for all minority
groups, including Mormons.
The quest narrative also misses another important point: Mormons or other
minorities may not wish to be fully in the mainstream. There is much in Mormon
doctrine, language and practice to suggest Mormons have other quests. Mormon
ordinances “set apart” Mormons as a people.281 Mormonism talks of fleeing from
“Babylon” and gathering to “Zion,” and oft-quoted scriptures talk of how believers
should be “peculiar.”282 About the time scholars were most frequently discussing whether
Mormons had entered the mainstream, a leading church authority publicly quoted Peter’s
281
1 Nephi, 20:20; D & C 101: 70; D & C 68:14, 19, 22.
282
1 Peter 2:9.
92
injunction to be a peculiar people, saying that if pathologies were the American
mainstream, he wanted nothing of it.283
Mark Silk’s Unsecular Media suggests and implies one way of seeing if a religion
is mainstream: Simply examine whether the idiosyncratic elements in a faith are
obscured, and whether generally unobjectionable traits – such as service to the poor,
American values, or love for families – merit more attention. Looking at various
doctrinal explanations of Mormonism, doctrinal frames can be seen as a measure of
whether the Mormon faith is portrayed as mainstream.
A third challenge for reporters covering Mormonism is deciding when and how
much to write about polygamy. Though polygamy was not a founding doctrine of
Mormonism, it emerged publicly in 1852, shortly after Mormons arrived in Utah and
within 25 years of the church’s founding. It became central to the U.S. interaction with
Mormonism and of portrayals of the faith in the 19th century. Republican politicians
pushed tough legislation in the Reconstruction era that led to numerous convictions for
Mormons in the late 1880s. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formally
abandoned the practice in 1890, and Utah obtained statehood shortly thereafter.284
Polygamy remains newsworthy.285 Mormon polygamy has remained in the public
imagination. When a Pew survey asked for free association terms about Mormonism,
283
See Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Chosen Generation,” Ensign, May 1992, 69, at
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d
82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=291294bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____
&hideNav=1, accessed March 6, 2009.
284
Richard D. Poll, “The Legislative Anti-polygamy campaign,” Brigham Young
University Studies, 26:4, Fall 1986, 107-121.
285
See, for example, Wendy Koch, “2nd arrest made at Texas polygamist compound,”
USA Today, April 9, 2008, under Nation, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200804-07-polygamist-compound_N.htm
93
polygamy was at the top of American responses.286 Shipps said that in the years after
Mormon statehood and the ending of polygamy, mentions of polygamy in the news
media increased. Perhaps such mentions were a way of delegitimizing Mormonism, to
show that it was a flawed religious system in the nation’s eyes, she said.287 Given this
history, it makes sense to look for the frequency of mentions of polygamy in the coverage
of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. These mentions constitute another way of detecting if
the faith is portrayed as in the mainstream or not.
A fourth challenge for political reporters is to deal with the question of where
Mormonism fits in the realm of Christianity. Should Mormonism be called a Christian
denomination? Should it be called something else? Many parts of Mormonism suggest
that Mormons believe themselves to be Christian. For example, the official name of the
Church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but accusations coming from
Christian groups that Mormons aren’t Christian persist. Only about half of Americans
think Mormons are Christian, polls have shown.288 Some religious groups don’t call
Mormons Christian in part because Mormons also choose not to embrace the Nicene
Creed or other traditional Christian creeds.289
286
Pew 2007, “Public expresses mixed view of Islam, Mormonism.”
287
Shipps, From Satyr to Saint, 67.
288
Jennifer Dobner, “Theology, doctrine at the root of evangelical-Mormon divide,”
Associated Press, December 5, 2007.
289
Nate Nielson, “Are Mormons Christian?” blog posting at newsroom.lds.org, posted
April 19, 2010, at http://newsroom.lds.org/blog/are-mormons-christian, accessed May 7,
2011. See also, Stephen E. Robinson, Are Mormons Christians? (Salt Lake City, Utah:
Bookcraft, 1991), vii-viii
94
2.3 Questions for the present study.
Literature in the preceding pages suggest distinct questions to ask about the
coverage of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism in his presidential campaign:
How did reporters frame Romney’s chances? Was he seen as succeeding or
suffering setbacks? What traits of his Mormonism were used to describe his religion?
Did reporters revert to using old stereotypes such as the long-abandoned practice of
polygamy in describing his faith? What facets of his character and personality were
highlighted? Was he seen as a candidate holding mainstream political views? Was his
religion seen as mainstream? To whom did reporters compare Romney in evaluating his
chances of dealing with religion in the campaign? Were there important differences
between opinion and news coverage?
In essence, the study that follows asks how reporters met the challenge of
covering Mormonism and other obstacles facing this otherwise mainstream candidate.
The following study examines how Mitt Romney and his religion were framed through
news coverage. Frequency tallies of 12 dimensions of Mormonism and 12 dimension of
Romney allow insight into how the horse-race frame related to the coverage of religion
and of Mormonism and whether the coverage framed Mormonism and Romney as
mainstream. Tallies of comparisons to other campaigns provide additional insight.
Chapter 3 reiterates the research questions shaping this study and then lays out the
methods of this content analysis. Chapter 4 describes the findings and answers to the
study questions. Chapter 5 uses indices, running means, examples and other means to
draw conclusions, to discuss the meaning of the study and to suggest topics for further
research.
95
Chapter 3. Design for the Present Study.
The purpose of this study is to see how a largely secular news media rose to the
challenge of covering the out-of-the-mainstream religious beliefs and chances of a
credible presidential candidate. The study measures the frequency of certain frames used
in the coverage of Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith. This study centered upon this
general question: What frames were evident in the coverage of Mitt Romney and his
religion during the 2008 campaign?
This question led to these specific sets of questions:
1.
Which factors in the campaign did the news media say were helping
Mitt Romney’s election chances? Which of these factors were
mentioned most frequently?
2.
Which factors in the campaign did the news media say were hindering
Mitt Romney’s election chances? Which of these factors were most
frequently mentioned?
3.
Did the news media more frequently cite factors that were helping
Romney or factors that were hindering his chances?
4.
How frequently was Romney portrayed in the coverage to be
succeeding or suffering setbacks in his campaign? In what
circumstances was he most frequently seen as suffering setbacks?
5.
Which elements of his Mormon faith were most frequently used to
explain Mormonism? Was the discarded Mormon practice of polygamy
still prevalent in the coverage?
96
6.
Did the news media portray Mormonism as a faith in the religious
mainstream? Were Romney’s views on issues portrayed as in the
mainstream?
7.
To which historical campaigns was Mitt Romney’s candidacy most
frequently compared?
8.
Was Romney’s faith framed differently in opinion writing than in hard
news coverage?
The concept of framing implies that it is impossible to write a news story without
some type of framing. As a story is written, it is unavoidable that some dimensions of an
object, issue or person will be evaluated, made “salient,” while others are ignored.
Framing, to paraphrase Entman’s words, is an unavoidable choice, necessary in writing.
Writers select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in such a
way as to promote a particular problem definition, interpretation, moral evaluation, or
other recommendation.290 Therefore, the first step in understanding the framing of an
issue is to understand what frames reporters chose – to understand what elements were
made salient by counting them. This study set out to do that – to describe the coverage of
Mitt Romney and his Mormonism in the 2008 campaign through quantitative content
analysis by counting the frequencies with which various dimensions of Mormonism, of
the campaign and of Mitt Romney as a candidate were mentioned. Further analysis was
conducted through examining how the frequency of frames varied over time.
The study’s purposive sample consisted of 205 articles selected from a
combination of regional newspapers, national newspapers, a wire service and national
290
Entman, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm,” 391.
97
news magazines. There were three newspapers with national scope in the study: The
New York Times, (31 articles) The Washington Post, (27 articles) and the Wall Street
Journal (14 articles). The Post and Times were searched using Lexis/Nexis. The Journal
was searched through ProQuest. Two regional newspapers were searched: The Chicago
Tribune (18 stories) and the Los Angeles Times (31 stories). Both were searched through
Proquest. Two national magazines were sampled: Time (2 stories) and Newsweek (6
stories). Both were searched using Lexis/Nexis. The Associated Press State & Regional
Wire was also selected and searched through Lexis/Nexis, with duplicates eliminated (76
stories).291
The 205 stories in the study were published starting Jan. 1, 2006, just as Romney
was being broadly introduced to the nation as a prospective candidate, and ending Feb.
10, 2008, just after Romney suspended his campaign. The articles in this study included
291
AP’s State & Regional wire rather than National wire was selected because it cast a
slightly larger, and therefore more national, net about Mormonism and Romney. The
intent was to give the population of stories a broader national flavor. Anyone who has
spent much time with Lexis and the Associated Press knows how difficult it can be to
select stories from the AP. Identical, duplicate stories often appear in the database. The
challenge is knowing when to eliminate near-duplicates. This study went through a
multi-step process to eliminate wire service duplicates. It was a hands-on process. First,
duplicates with the same headline and identical word count were eliminated in LexisNexis’ index screen without further evaluation. Second, stories that had identical
headlines but differing word counts, the longer and later story was selected if the leads
were largely the same. Third, if articles had differing word counts and similar headlines
but differed in sequence (for example, “a man will visit,” “a man is visiting” and “a man
visited”) each of these sequential, but otherwise similar, articles all merited inclusion
because they weren’t just longer versions of the same story. The most significant times
this approach to sorting AP resulted in a greater frequency of stories was during Mitt
Romney’s Faith in America speech and during the time of the death of Mormon president
Gordon B. Hinckley. At times, entire articles were read when the headlines alone made it
unclear if there was such a sequence. Sometimes these sequencing decisions were made
by looking at the headline, date and word count only. No significant moments in the
campaign were excluded. AP, even after eliminating duplicates, makes up the largest
portion of this story population.
98
those that discussed Romney’s Mormonism at some depth, not just mentioning obliquely
that Romney was a Mormon.292 Each article in this study mentioned Mormon or a
derivation of that word at least four times, and Mitt Romney at least once. The design of
the sample is such that the Romney campaign may not have been the topic of some of the
articles in the study. 293
Each article was evaluated in .pdf format and coded for 42 separate variables. See
Appendix A for the full codebook. Each coded variable was entered into an Excel
spreadsheet relying upon the codebook in Appendix A.
Seven variables provided descriptive data on the article itself, including date,
source, numbering and type of story, and whether the article came from an opinion or
news section.294 Three variables tallied how often Romney’s name was mentioned: if he
were in the headline, whether he was in the lead paragraph, and the total number of
Romney mentions in the story, including captions and graphics accompanying a story.
292
In Lexis/Nexis, I used the search function “atleast4(Mormon) and Romney.” This
search found articles where the word Mormon was mentioned at least four times plus the
word Romney. No articles had mentions of other Romneys without mentioning Mitt
Romney. Sometimes Mitt Romney was mentioned as few as one time. In Proquest, I
downloaded every article that mentioned Romney and Mormon. Then I used the search
function in Macintosh’s Preview program to find four mentions of Mormon within those
stories. Proquest has significantly longer article abstracts than does Lexis/Nexis,
meaning that Mormon may appear more times for the same type of article than in Lexis.
I nevertheless included those that returned only four Mormon references in the article as
downloaded, even if Mormon was in the abstract of the article. No more than two stories
were included through Proquest’s search functioning that MAY not have been included in
my Lexis’ search method.
293
This search method yielded a few stories (as few as three and as many as 28,
depending on definitions) that may not have been occasioned by dynamics of the
campaign itself, but rather were features or news stories about Mormonism that
mentioned Mitt Romney during the course of the campaign.
294
None of these seven variables were subject to intercoder reliability as they were in the
wording of the descriptive material of Lexis/Nexis and Proquest itself.
99
These variables were summed to see how often Romney was mentioned. Two or fewer
mentions of Romney were interpreted to mean the article was focused on The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in general or a related topic with Romney being brought
up in passing.295 More than two mentions of Romney meant the article focused on him or
his campaign.
A pair of variables tallied the number of specific evaluations of Romney’s success
in the campaign. The first looked at whether the text indicated he was succeeding and the
second at whether he was suffering setbacks. A total was indicated of how many specific,
sentence-level assessments occurred in each story.296 These totals could be compared to
show whether an article, on balance, showed that Romney was succeeding or suffering
setbacks in his campaign.
The study also measured which dimensions of Mormonism were discussed in
each article; which characteristics of Romney and his campaign were said to be helping
his chances of winning; which characteristics of Romney and his campaign were said to
be hindering his chances of winning; whether Romney’s views and his Mormonism were
portrayed as being in the mainstream in each story; and which previous presidential
campaigns, if any, were compared to Mitt Romney’s in 2008.
295
I summed these variables and then used Excel’s IF function to calculate a new
variable to see whether an article was focused on Romney. The function was =IF(A3>2,
“Romney focus”, “Not Romney focus”). I calculated the intercoder reliability on this
summation and it was 100 percent reliable.
296
I aggregated these findings mathematically and used Excel’s “if” function to show if
the result showed more setbacks or more successes or neither as assessed within the
article. The calculation in Excel worked like this: =IF(Q3>0, “succeeding”, IF(Q3=0,
“neither”, “suffering setbacks”)). This allowed me to show that an article, on balance,
said Romney was either succeeding or suffering setbacks.
100
Seven variables were created to check for specific characteristics of Romney or
his campaign the articles said were helping his nomination prospects (such as whether his
campaign strategy and tactics or his religion was helping him); five variables were
created to check for characteristics of Romney or his campaign that the articles said were
hindering his chances (such as his supposed flip-flopping on issues or his religion was
hindering his chances).297 Twelve variables checked for characteristics of Mormonism in
each sampled story. All 24 of these variables were coded as 1s or 0s, 1 for yes or 0 for no.
These variables may be seen in Appendix A.
Two variables used a 1-to-5 Likert scale to measure the coders’ impression of the
degree to which Mormonism was portrayed as being within the religious mainstream in
each news articles and a second variable asked coders to judge the degree to which
Romney’s stands on political issues were portrayed as being within the mainstream. Four
variables looked for occurrences of mentions of pre-2008 campaigns to which Mitt
Romney’s presidential campaign may have been compared. The variables coded for
articles that compared Romney’s campaign to earlier presidential campaigns, what past
campaign was mentioned and whether religion was a factor in the coverage.298
The selection of these variables emerged after careful examination of scholarly
literature, from perusal of hundreds of articles about Mitt Romney, and from careful
evaluation of exactly what might coded to address each research question. Four scholarly
297
Given that the story population is focused on Mormonism primarily, the
generalizability of these Romney dimensions to external campaign coverage where
Mormonism is not mentioned is somewhat unclear and, therefore, findings about Romney
and what hindered and helped him alone without the context of Mormonism should be
recognized as a limitation of this study.
298
Again, given that this story population was focused heavily on Mormonism, the
generalizability of these variables to the overall coverage outside this study may be
limited.
101
works were especially instrumental, Lichter, Amundson and Licther’s analysis299 of
media coverage of the Catholic church; Peter Kerr’s evaluations of the coverage of
evangelical Christians;300 Jan Shipps’ studies of Mormonism and the media,301 and Mark
Silk’s book Unsecular Media.302 Pew’s 2007 study of American perceptions of Mormons
was also useful.303
The 12 variables this study used to measure the portrayal of Mormonism emerged
from the literature and other analyses of Mormon-related news coverage. For example,
the code for “Mormons are unusually secretive, dangerous, deceptive or insular” emerged
from the literature and from Pew’s 2007 study, particularly the one-word responses
frequently used to describe Mormonism by those who responded to the Pew survey. That
Mormons allegedly discriminate against women and people of color was a variable that
emerged from a study of Mitt Romney’s 1994 campaign and George Romney’s 1968
campaign. That Mormons believe in polygamy emerged from Pew’s study and from the
history of the coverage of Mormonism as undertaken by Jan Shipps. The idea that
Mormons believe in good works emerged from Mark Silk’s research, which suggested
that religion is mainstreamed by a framing focus on favorable traits like helping the poor.
In short, the 12 dimensions of Mormonism in this study were based upon the academic
299
S. Robert Lichter, Daniel Amundson, Daniel, and Linda Lichter, Linda. Media
Coverage of the Catholic Church. (New Haven, CN: The Center for Media and Public
Affairs, The Knights of Columbus, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights,
1991).
Lichter, Amundson and Lichter, 1991.
300
Kerr 2003; Kerr and Moy, 2002.
301
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint” and “Surveying the Mormon Image,”2000.
302
Silk, 1998.
303
Pew, “Public expresses mixed view of Islam, Mormonism.”
102
literature. Beyond that, a detailed, preliminary analysis of 75 percent of the articles in
this study found 60 narrow descriptions of Mormonism’s history, people and beliefs in
the news articles. These 60 dimensions and others suggested by the literature and
coverage of earlier campaigns were sorted into the 12 more general categories selected
for this study. This study is based on the presence or absence of manifest content rather
than Likert score evaluation by coders of each dimension of Mormonism or of Romney.
This approach minimized, to the extent possible, researcher bias.
After coding, many of the variables were evaluated in Excel to see how they
varied over date of coverage and in what combinations. Excel demonstrated graphically
when in the campaign particular dimensions appeared with greater frequency.304 The
study has a strong intercoder reliability of just more than 84 percent on average.
Appendix B includes the analysis of intercoder reliability.305
A final methodological step was to conduct two word searches were also done to
find the frequency of certain terms in the sample population. Those terms included: the
frequency of the word “cult,” and the frequency of nine synonymous words to the term
“unusual.”
304
The idea of a running mean worked like this: If one article had a particular variable,
then a 1 would be entered into Excel. This variable was averaged with the same variables
in the next nine articles in sequence. If a mean for a given article was 1, that meant that
all 10 articles in sequence had a particular dimension. A zero meant none of them did.
This calculation was then performed for each article in sequence so a trend line could be
created. These presentations showed trends and narrative arcs and times when certain
ways of thinking about Mormonism and Mitt Romney occurred. It suggested how the
story played out and if favorability changed over time.
305
As Appendix B shows, the study’s author coded all of the stories. Two additional
coders evaluated a random sample of the study’s 205 articles as part of determining
intercoder reliability.
103
The study’s design allows for detection of the frames in the study and the
frequency with which they appear. The method provides several ways to gauge what
frames were present in the coverage of Mitt Romney and his Mormonism. Creating
indices, means, and frequencies allows for more thorough analysis, which sheds some
light on the questions that prompted this research about how Mormonism is framed and
how the horse-race frame plays out when religion is involved. This approach also
allowed a detailed analysis of how favorably – and unfavorably --Mormonism was
framed and how the mainstream and model minority discourses of Mormonism may have
played out in the coverage overall.
Chapter 4 presents the findings of this study. Chapter 5 draws some conclusions,
discusses those conclusions and makes recommendations for further research.
104
Chapter 4: Research Findings
4.1 Data Summary.
This section describes the data collection efforts and the resulting databases that
were used for further analysis. As shown in Tables 4.1 and 4.2, more than one-third of the
articles in the sampled stories came from the Associated Press. Another third of the
articles analyzed came from three national newspapers, The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal and the Washington Post. Four percent of the articles analyzed came from
two national news magazines, Time and Newsweek. The rest came from two regional
newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Table 4.1: Number of articles by source type. N=205
Source Type
National Magazine
National Paper
Regional Paper
Wire Service
Total
Number of articles
8
72
49
76
205
Percentage of population
4%
35 %
24 %
37 %
100 %
Table 4.2: Number of articles by source. N=205
Source
Associated Press
Newsweek
New York Times
Washington Post
Time
Wall Street Journal
Chicago Tribune
Los Angeles Times
Total
Percentage of population
37 %
3%
15 %
13 %
1%
7%
9%
15 %
100 %
Number of articles
76
6
31
27
2
14
18
31
205
As shown in Table 4.3, more than 8 in 10 articles in the study mentioned Romney
more than two times – meaning for the purposes of this study that the article had a
“Romney focus.” The rest were articles in which Romney or his campaign were
105
mentioned two or fewer times. These articles lacked a Romney focus and, instead, were
more about Romney’s Mormon faith. All articles were part of subsequent analyses.
Table 4.3: Number of articles with Romney focus. N=205.
Focus of article
Not Romney focus: Mentioned Romney two
or fewer times.
Romney focus: Mentioned Romney more than
two times
Total
Number of articles
Percentage of story population
33
16 %
172
205
84 %
100%
As Table 4.4 shows, nearly three in four of the articles in the study were news
articles rather than opinion articles.
Table 4.4: Number of opinion or news articles by category. N=205.
Type of story
News
Opinion
Total
National Magazine
4
4
8
National Paper
46
26
72
Regional Paper
30
19
49
Wire Service
70
6
76
Total
150
55
205
As Table 4.5 shows, certain topics dominated the coverage. About 26 percent of
the overall coverage was on Romney’s “Faith in America” speech. This included articles
early in the campaign cycle that described Romney’s decision-making about whether he
needed to give a speech about his religion, and evaluations of the speech after he
delivered it. The death, funeral and aftermath of Mormon prophet Gordon B. Hinckley
comprised 6 percent of the stories. This event was retained in the study because Romney
attended the funeral and because it put Romney’s faith in the spotlight again near the end
of his 2008 campaign. Features on Mormonism, articles discussing Romney’s
Mormonism, and articles about campaign events comprised about 36 percent of the
remaining stories among them.
106
Table 4.5: Number of articles by story topic. N=205.
Topic
Percentage of population
Total
Campaign event
22
11 %
Romney feature profile
16
8%
Fundraising
7
4%
Huckabee's question
8
4%
Mountain Meadows
3
2%
Mormon overview
4
2%
13
6%
2
1%
29
14 %
Poll controversy
9
4%
Polling other
8
4%
Sharpton controversy
7
3%
The speech
54
26 %
The Mormon issue
23
11 %
205
100 %
Mormon prophet death
Other
Other Mormon feature
Total
Table 4.6 shows the articles were scattered throughout the two-year period of the
study, but special attention to Mormonism came during December 2007 when Mitt
Romney delivered his speech “Faith in America” and when Mike Huckabee asked an
interviewer whether Jesus and Satan were brothers according to Mormon doctrine.
Table 4.6: Number of articles by month.
Month
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Totals
2006
1
1
1
2
4
3
1
5
18
2007
2
5
2008
16
18
11
14
7
9
3
4
14
13
71
153
34
107
4.2 Study Questions and Findings
The findings in these data were centered upon the study questions.
Question 1: Which factors in the campaign did the news media say were helping
Mitt Romney’s election chances? Which of these factors were mentioned the most
frequently?
Finding 1: As Figure 4.1 shows, seven dimensions were regularly portrayed as
helping Romney’s chances at winning. The most frequent of these was Romney’s
campaign organization and strategy.
33.17% 30.24% 25.85% 23.41% 22.93% 21.46% 8.78% Romney’s Romney’s Romney's Romney's campaign experience, morals and position on organization personality values issues and strategy and intellect Romney's family Romney’s religion Romney’s looks Figure 4.1: Percentage of stories with dimensions that were helping Romney’s chances of winning. N=205.
As Figure 4.1 shows, Romney’s campaign strategy and organization was the most
frequent factor that journalists and editorialists said was helping Romney. This
dimension was cited in 33.17 percent of the articles in this study. Articles citing
Romney’s experience, intellect and personality comprised 30.24 percent of the stories.
The least frequent factor helping him was his looks, although this factor was mentioned
in 8.78 percent of the stories. Romney’s religion was cited as helping him in 21.46
percent of the stories in this study. In 23.41 percent of the stories, Romney’s position on
the issues was said to be helping his chances. His morals and values were cited as
108
helping him in 25.85 percent of the stories. His family was also seen as an asset in 22.93
percent of the articles.
As Figure 4.2 shows, 60 percent of the stories included at least one of these
dimensions that were seen to help Romney. As Figure 4.3 shows, among stories in which
Mormonism was not counted as a dimension helping Romney, 56 percent of the stories
contained at least one of the other six dimensions listed as helping Romney.
40% No Help in the article 60% Had at least one help in the article Figure 4.2: Percentage of stories that had at least one dimension that was helping Romney to win. N=205.
44% 56% Had at least one helps dimension besides Mormonism Had no helps dimensions besides Mormonism Figure 4.3: Percentage of stories that contained at least one dimension that was viewed as helping Romney to
win – besides Mormonism. N=205.
109
Table 4.7 shows these variables by story source. Note that the Wall Street
Journal was generally the most likely to include the dimensions helping Romney.
Table 4.7: Percentage of articles with helps dimensions by source. N=205.
AP
(n=76)
Newsweek
(n=6)
NYT
(n=31)
WP
(n=27)
18.42%
33.33%
41.94%
29.63%
23.68%
50.00%
22.58%
17.11%
33.33%
3.95%
Time
(n=2)
WSJ
(n=14)
CT
(n=18)
LAT
(n=31)
0.00%
42.86%
22.22%
19.35%
44.44%
50.00%
57.14%
22.22%
29.03%
29.03%
37.04%
0.00%
35.71%
0.00%
16.13%
16.67%
16.13%
14.81%
0.00%
14.29%
11.11%
3.23%
26.32%
50.00%
35.48%
40.74%
100.00%
50.00%
33.33%
25.81%
22.37%
18.42%
33.33%
50.00%
16.13%
22.58%
25.93%
18.52%
0.00%
0.00%
42.86%
28.57%
27.78%
16.67%
19.35%
35.48%
Romney's morals and
values.
Romney’s experience,
personality and
intellect.
Romney’s religion.
Romney’s looks.
Romney’s campaign
organization and
strategy.
Romney's position on
issues.
Romney's family.
Question 2: Which factors in the campaign did the news media say were
hindering Mitt Romney’s election chances? Which of these factors were most frequently
mentioned?
Finding 2: As Figure 4.4 shows, five dimensions of news coverage in this study
were regularly seen to be hindering his chances. The most frequent of those was his
religion. The second most frequent was his supposed lack of authenticity, evidenced in
part by his supposed flip-flops on issues.
110
73.66% 25.85% His religion Romney’s changing opinions on issues 24.88% Romney’s campaign and strategy 6.83% 4.39% Romney’s personality Romney’s wealth or social status. Figure 4.4: Percentage of stories with specific dimensions hindering Romney’s chances of winning. N=205.
Figure 4.4 shows that, by far, Romney’s Mormon religion was said to be the most
common dimension hindering his chances of winning the Republican nomination. His
religion hindering his chances was mentioned in nearly three in four stories – 73.66
percent of the time, or three times as frequently as Mormonism was cited as helping the
candidate. One clear example of how this appeared in the campaign was a Wall Street
Journal editorial following Romney’s “Faith In America” speech:
Mr. Romney mentioned the word “Mormon” only once, and he
was right to steer clear of formal theology or specific practices. Some
denominations are leery of – or openly hostile to – the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, considering it un-Christian, or even a cult.
Surveys indicate that many voters oppose Mr. Romney for this reason, and
his speech probably won't do much to convince them otherwise.306
The concept of Romney’s wealth and his social status hindering his chances was
present in 4.39 percent of the sample stories and was the least frequent hindering
dimension. An example of that came from an article in the Washington Post that spoke
306
“The Book of Romney,” editorial, Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2007, A16.
111
about Romney’s Massachusetts home being near New Hampshire, site of the important
first-in-the-nation primary:
To many residents of the Lakes Region, Romney is simply another
of the well-to-do people who flock to the area in the summertime. They
recall the fuss after he was elected governor and the Massachusetts State
Police set out buoys declaring the waters near the Romney house offlimits. “That didn't last too long. He took a lot of abuse,” said David
Hughey, a Massachusetts investment adviser who retired in the area.307
Romney’s supposed lack of authenticity – what critics sometimes called his
changing position on issues was mentioned as a political liability in 25.85 percent of the
stories, the most frequent hindrance to his campaign besides Mormonism. It might be
argued this specific evaluation comprises an evaluation of Romney’s character and is,
therefore, the most specific and frequent evaluation of Romney’s character in the sample
campaign coverage. The Wall Street Journal editorial made this point explicitly:
Once a cultural moderate, Mr. Romney has converted to
conservative social positions on abortion, and so on. Rudy Giuliani
recently needled him about his “sanctuary mansion” for illegal
immigrants, so this week he fired his gardeners. He boasted about his
HillaryCare Lite reform in Massachusetts, then had his free-market
advisers rewrite it for the primary campaign. Despite yesterday’s laudable
speech, we suspect Mr. Romney will rise or fall as a candidate based on
how well he can sell his worldly record.308
Romney’s campaign organization and strategy was also cited as a hindrance in
24.88 percent of the stories in the campaign. In an article in the Chicago Tribune
following Romney’s speech, Manya Brachear wrote,
307
Alec McGillis, “Romney Seeks a Neighborly Reception; Ex-Massachusetts
Governor's New Hampshire Ties Could Be a Blessing or a Curse,” Washington Post,
December 12, 2007, A06.
308
“The Book of Romney.”
112
Some scholars say Romney missed an opportunity to prove how
distinct doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have
helped shape his personal values of equality, family and service to others –
moral principles that he said Mormons share with every person of faith.
Though he wouldn't have won over religious conservatives with Mormon
apologetics, he didn't silence them by trying to gloss over fine points of
theology.309
His personality was a hindrance in 6.83 percent of the stories. A Chicago Tribune
campaign profile talked of that personality:
His is a remarkable story of perseverance and success, with
tendencies to perfectionism. Romney is smooth and polished, almost to a
fault. His perfectly slicked hair will be someone's idea of a metaphor.
Where George W. Bush was embraced as folksy and genuine, Romney –
especially on TV – can come across as programmed. At a time when a lot
of Americans like their presidents to be someone they could envision
sitting with and having a drink, the best you could hope for with Mitt
Romney is belting down a decaffeinated vanilla Coke.310
As Figure 4.5 shows, 79 percent of the articles contained at least one of these five
dimensions that writers said hindered Romney’s chances.
Similarly, as Figure 4.6 shows, 41 percent of the articles mentioned at least one of
the other four dimensions said to be hindering Romney’s chances – not including
Mormonism. Only 10 of these 84 articles didn’t mention that Mormonism was also
hindering Romney’s chances.
309
Manya A. Brachear, “Hope seen for Mormon candidacy; But to some, Romney missed
opportunity,” Chicago Tribune, December 7, 2007, 13.
310
Tim Jones, “Smartest guy in the Room; He's a perfectly packaged overachiever with
all the answers, but one question remains: Who is the real Mitt Romney?” Chicago
Tribune, October 9, 2007, 1.
113
21% Had at least one hinders dimension Had no hinders dimensions 79% Figure 4.5: Percentage of stories with any dimensions hindering Romney’s chances of winning. N=205.
41% Had a hinders dimension besides Mormonism 59% Had no hinders dimensions besides Mormonism Figure 4.6: Percentage of stories with specific dimensions hindering Romney’s chances of winning – not
including Mormonism. N=205.
Table 4.8 shows these dimensions by the source of the article. Of note, the
Chicago Tribune and Time magazine were most likely to say his religion was hindering
his chances. The Associated Press was least likely to say that Romney’s changing
positions on issues was hindering his chances.
114
Table 4.8: Percentage of articles with hinders dimensions by source. N=205.
AP
(n=76)
Newsweek
(n=6)
NYT
(n=31)
WP
(n=27)
Time
(n=2)
WSJ
(n=14)
CT
(n=18)
LAT
(n=31)
His religion
63.16%
66.67%
67.74%
70.37%
100.00%
85.71%
100.00%
87.10%
15.79%
50.00%
29.03%
37.04%
50.00%
35.71%
27.78%
25.81%
2.63%
33.33%
3.23%
11.11%
0.00%
14.29%
11.11%
6.45%
1.32%
0.00%
3.23%
14.81%
0.00%
14.29%
0.00%
3.23%
14.47%
33.33%
35.48%
14.81%
50.00%
35.71%
27.78%
38.71%
Romney’s
changing
opinions on
issues
Romney’s
personality
Romney’s
wealth or
Social
status.
Romney’s
campaign
and
strategy
As Figure 4.7 shows, the frequency with which Romney’s religion was seen as a
hindrance varied over time. Three spikes occurred in April, October and December 2007.
In April, campaign fundraising totals came out for the first quarter and Romney emerged
as a viable contender because he had raised more money than any other GOP candidate.
Features articles began to look at his strengths and weaknesses as a candidate and that he
had to rely on his network of Mormons for some of his money, suggesting he had yet to
reach across religious boundaries. In October, a variety of stories emerged about
Romney, especially new feature articles about the candidate as voting was nearing in the
early primary states. The third spike in December corresponds with Romney’s Faith in
America speech.
115
1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 Figure 4.7: Mormonism as a hindrance, over time. N=196.
Question 3: Did the news media more frequently cite factors that were helping
Romney or factors that were hindering his chances?
Finding 3: Aside from Mormonism, more dimensions were seen as helping
Romney than hindering him.
As Figures 4.3 and 4.6 showed previously, 41 percent of the stories had at least
one dimension saying Romney’s campaign faced hindrances besides Mormonism,
whereas 56 percent of the stories included a dimension that was helping Romney’s
chances besides Mormonism. Similarly, Table 4.9 shows that more dimensions of
coverage were shown to be helping Romney’s chances than hindering them.
Table 4.9: Total frequency of dimensions helping and hindering Romney’s chances. N=205 stories.
Total number of dimensions
Total number of helping dimensions, including Mormonism
Total number of helping dimensions, not including Mormonism
Total number of hindering dimensions, including Mormonism
Total number of hindering dimensions, not including Mormonism
Total number of dimensions mentioned in all the articles
116
Total
349
296
278
127
627
9-­‐Jan-­‐08 9-­‐Dec-­‐07 9-­‐Nov-­‐07 9-­‐Oct-­‐07 9-­‐Sep-­‐07 9-­‐Aug-­‐07 9-­‐Jul-­‐07 9-­‐Jun-­‐07 9-­‐May-­‐07 9-­‐Apr-­‐07 9-­‐Mar-­‐07 9-­‐Feb-­‐07 9-­‐Jan-­‐07 9-­‐Dec-­‐06 9-­‐Nov-­‐06 9-­‐Oct-­‐06 9-­‐Sep-­‐06 9-­‐Aug-­‐06 9-­‐Jul-­‐06 9-­‐Jun-­‐06 9-­‐May-­‐06 9-­‐Apr-­‐06 9-­‐Mar-­‐06 0 9-­‐Feb-­‐06 0.2 Table 4.10 shows when Mormonism was included in the tallies, the number of
articles with a preponderance of hindering dimensions was approximately equal to the
number with a greater frequency of helping dimensions.
Table 4.10: Frequency of stories with preponderance of helping or hindering dimensions, Mormonism included.
N=205.
Type of preponderance
More helping dimensions
More hindering dimensions
Neither more helping nor more hindering dimensions
Total
73
72
60
Table 4.11 and Figure 4.8 show that the number of articles that showed more
dimensions helping Romney than hindering him when Mormonism was excluded.
Table 4.11: Frequency of stories with preponderance of helping of hindering dimensions, Mormonism not
included. N=205.
Type of preponderance
More helping dimensions excluding Mormonism
More hindering dimensions excluding Mormonism
Neither more helping nor more hindering dimensions
neither more helping nor more hindering dimensions 41% Total
96
25
84
more helping dimensions excluding Mormonism 47% more hindering dimensions excluding Mormonism 12% Figure 4.8: Percentage of stories with more helping or hindering dimensions or neither, excluding Mormonism.
N=205
117
Question 4: How frequently was Romney portrayed in the coverage to be
succeeding or suffering setbacks in his campaign? In what circumstances was he most
frequently seen as suffering setbacks?
Finding 4: As Figure 4.9 shows, Romney was most often shown as neither
succeeding nor suffering setbacks.
29% neutral 61% 10% succeeding suffering setbacks Figure 4.9: Percentage of articles showing whether Romney was succeeding, was suffering setbacks, or was
“neutral,” neither suffering setbacks nor succeeding on balance. N=205.
The most frequent assessment – found in 61 percent of the articles – of whether
Romney was succeeding or suffering setbacks was that, on balance, Romney was neither
succeeding nor suffering setbacks. Most of those articles had no assessment of success or
suffering setbacks – 60 percent of the total had no assessment. Only 1 percent of articles
contained an equal assessment of setbacks and successes. There were nearly three times
as many articles (29 percent and 10 percent of the total respectively) that said Romney
was suffering setbacks as said he was succeeding on balance.
As Figure 4.10 shows, the overall assessment of success and failure varied
through the course of the campaign. The high point of Romney’s success appeared to
come in October 2007, about the time Romney received the endorsement of Bob Jones
118
III. The low point was when writers analyzed Romney’s decision to give his “Faith in
America” speech in early December 2007. The mean for each calendar date in this figure
and others figures like it was calculated by putting the articles in sequence and
calculating a mean presence (on a scale of 0 to 2) of whether a variable was coded as
present in the coverage over 10 consecutive articles.
1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 -­‐0.2 -­‐0.4 -­‐0.6 -­‐0.8 -­‐1 -­‐1.2 Figure 4.10: Running average over time of whether Romney is succeeding or suffering setbacks. 1 is neutral:
neither succeeding or suffering setbacks, 2 is succeeding, and 0 is suffering setbacks. The X-axis of this graph is the
sequence of articles arranged over time. N=196.
This finding led to the following ancillary finding:
Ancilliary finding 4.1: When Romney decided to give his Faith in America
speech, most articles framed the decision through the lens that he was suffering setbacks.
Table 4.12 shows the clear dominance of “setbacks” in the coverage around Dec.
3, 2007. In the days after Romney announced his “Faith in America” speech late on Dec.
2, 2007, through the day he delivered it, Dec. 6, 2007, analysis of individual articles
about the speech showed that these articles were framed through the lens of Romney
119
suffering setbacks in the polls. In essence, Romney’s decision to give his speech was
framed that the fact that he was suffering setbacks led to his decision.
In fact, nearly 45 percent of the “suffering setbacks” stories in the overall study
sample were somehow related to Romney’s speech, the data show. Table 4.13 shows
how setbacks was a much more common framing than success in any coverage of the
speech throughout the entire campaign.
Table 4.12: Number of stories saying Romney was suffering setbacks between Dec. 2 and Dec. 6, 2007 in the
coverage that focused on Romney speech. N=23.
Articles evaluation of Romney’s
chances in the speech coverage
Neutral or no assessment
Suffering setbacks
Number of articles
6
17
Table 4.13: Number of stories saying Romney was suffering setbacks in the coverage that focused on Romney
speech during the entire scope of the study. N=54.
Articles evaluation of Romney’s
chances in the speech coverage
Neutral or no assessment
Succeeding
Suffering setbacks
Number of articles
24
4
26
Question 5: Which dimensions of Romney’s Mormon faith were most frequently
used to explain his Mormonism? Was the discarded Mormon practice of polygamy still
prevalent in the coverage as it has been historically?
Finding 5: Many dimensions of Mormonism were present in the coverage. The
most frequently mentioned dimension was whether Mormons are Christian. The least
frequent dimension was that Mormons are caring people. Polygamy was present in more
than one in four stories in the study sample.
120
Caring 13.66% "Clean-­‐living" 17.07% Unusually secretive, deceptive or insular 23.90% Discriminate 24.39% Polygamy 27.80% Traditional family values 29.76% Represent traditional American values 31.22% Size/growth of church 36.59% First list of beliefs 40.49% Devout 43.90% Second list of beliefs 49.76% Christian or not 52.20% Figure 4.11: Percentage of stories with various Mormon dimensions. N=205.
As Figure 4.11 shows, 12 dimensions of Mormonism were explored in this study.
The most common dimension that articles in this study mentioned involved
Mormonism’s relationship to Christianity. This dimension was identified in 52.2 percent
of the stories. That is to say that these articles contained assertions or statements about
the whether Mormons are Christian, believe in Jesus Christ or are members of some
heretical, non-Christian religion. The second most-frequent dimension found in the
coverage was all or part the discrete list of Mormon beliefs that Mormon leaders through
their first missionary discussion have described as basic doctrines that differentiate it
from other churches and denominations. In this study, I have termed these the “second
list” of Mormon beliefs.311 A simple mention of any one of these beliefs merited
inclusion of this variable. This study dimension was in 49.76 percent of the stories. The
third-most-frequent dimension “Mormons are devout people” was in more than 43.9
311
The exact definition of this variable is in Appendix A.
121
percent of stories. The fourth most-frequent dimension was whether the articles
mentioned any of a list of Mormon beliefs that I have termed these terms the “first list” of
Mormon beliefs. If any article mentioned one or more of these beliefs, it was included in
the tally. Articles that labeled Mormonism as “unusual” or something similar were also
included in this dimension. This dimension occurred in 40.49 percent of the stories.312
The fifth most prevalent dimension reporters dealt with the growth and size of the Church
as a way of explaining Mormonism. This dimension was identified in 36.59 percent of
the stories in the study sample. The sixth most prevalent dimension, defined here as
“Mormonism and Mormons represent traditional American values,” was found in 31.22
percent of the stories.313 Mormon belief in the traditional family was in 29.76 percent of
the stories. Polygamy was mentioned in 27.8 percent of the stories. The allegation that
Mormons discriminate against people of color and against women, including mentions of
the fact that Mormonism changed its doctrine on priesthood in 1978 to allow blacks to be
ordained, was in 24.39 percent of the stories.314 The notion that “Mormons are secretive,
dangerous, deceptive or unusually insular” was found in 23.9 percent of the stories. The
least common dimension of Mormonism presented in the study was that Mormons are
caring people – 13.66 percent of the stories included this variable. The second-least
common dimension of Mormonism in the study was that Mormons believe in clean-living
– 17.07 percent of the stories contained this variable.
312
See Appendix A for an exact definition of this variable. The idea behind this variable
was to take beliefs that especially when taken out of context, could make the religion
appear particularly idiosyncratic to non-Mormons.
313
See Appendix A for an exact definition of this variable.
314
Mormons don’t accept the notion that they are deceptive, unusually secretive or that
they discriminate.
122
The news coverage reveals in the aggregate a rich, detailed, inconsistent portrayal
of Mormonism. Table 4.14 shows the dimensions of Mormonism found in each story
source. (Time has only two articles in its population, so its numbers should be taken
advisedly.) The AP, for example, was less likely to mention polygamy when compared to
other sources, while nearly half of the Wall Street Journal articles mentioned it along
with nearly 40 percent of the New York Times articles. Similarly, the New York Times and
the Los Angeles Times almost never mentioned the dimension that Mormons are caring
people. The New York Times was also more likely than average to include the second list
of Mormon beliefs, as well as the dimension that Mormons are secretive and the variable
questioning Mormonism’s place in Christianity.
Table 4.14: Percentage of stories where various Mormon dimensions appeared by source. N=205.
Mormon dimension
AP
(n=76)
Newsweek
(n=6)
NYT
(n=31)
WP
(n=27)
Time
(n=2)
WSJ
(n=14)
CT
(n=18)
LAT
(n=31)
Total
(n=205)
Polygamy
17.1%
33.3%
38.7%
29.6%
100.0%
42.9%
33.3%
25.8%
27.8%
23.7%
33.3%
25.8%
33.3%
50.0%
21.4%
16.7%
19.4%
24.4%
10.5%
66.7%
22.6%
25.9%
100.0%
28.6%
5.6%
6.5%
17.1%
40.8%
50.0%
48.4%
63.0%
0.0%
50.0%
44.4%
29.0%
43.9%
14.5%
16.7%
3.2%
25.9%
0.0%
21.4%
22.2%
3.2%
13.7%
40.8%
83.3%
32.3%
37.0%
100.0%
28.6%
27.8%
51.6%
40.5%
44.7%
50.0%
58.1%
59.3%
100.0%
64.3%
55.6%
32.3%
49.8%
17.1%
33.3%
32.3%
33.3%
100.0%
28.6%
33.3%
9.7%
23.9%
Mormons
discriminate against
women and people of
color.
Mormons are
socially conservative
or believe in “cleanliving.”
Mormons are
devout.
Mormons are caring
people.
Second list of beliefs.
First list of beliefs.
Mormons are
unusually secretive,
dangerous,
deceptive, or insular.
123
Mormons represent
traditional American
values.
31.6%
50.0%
35.5%
33.3%
100.0%
50.0%
11.1%
19.4%
31.2%
25.0%
50.0%
35.5%
37.0%
50.0%
42.9%
27.8%
19.4%
29.8%
32.9%
33.3%
41.9%
55.6%
50.0%
50.0%
22.2%
25.8%
36.6%
34.2%
50.0%
61.3%
55.6%
100.0%
57.1%
66.7%
71.0%
52.2%
Mormons believe in
what are often called
traditional family
values.
The Mormon
Church is large and
growing rapidly.
Disagreement on
whether Mormons
are Christian.
Table 4.15 includes these dimensions by whether the story focused on Romney or
not – that is based on whether the articles had more than two mentions of Romney’s
name or not. Many more favorable dimensions, such as Mormons being caring people
and Mormons being devout, appeared in those articles without a Romney focus. More
unfavorable dimensions, such as Mormons’ alleged discrimination of women and people
with color and the disagreement over whether Mormons are Christian or not, were more
common in these Romney-focused stories. The dimensions of secrecy, clean-living and
polygamy appeared with approximately the same frequency, regardless of story focus.
These characteristics of Mormon portrayals are relatively consistent regardless of the
focus of stories. The relatively unfavorable tenor of the dimensions of Mormonism
linked with Romney suggests a focus on the horse race may have led reporters to mention
dimensions of Mormonism that were more controversial – and therefore more
newsworthy and less favorable. This will be discussed more fully later.
Table 4.15: Percentage of stories where various Mormon dimensions appeared by article focus. N=205.
Not Romney
focus (n=33)
Mormon Dimension
Polygamy
24.2%
124
Romney
focus
(n=172)
28.5%
Total
(n=205)
27.8%
Mormons discriminate against women and people of color.
15.2%
26.2%
24.4%
18.2%
16.9%
17.1%
66.7%
39.5%
43.9%
27.3%
11.0%
13.7%
33.3%
41.9%
40.5%
72.7%
45.3%
49.8%
24.2%
23.8%
23.9%
54.5%
26.7%
31.2%
36.4%
28.5%
29.8%
54.5%
30.3%
33.1%
56.4%
36.6%
52.2%
Mormons are socially conservative or believe in “cleanliving.”
Mormons are devout.
Mormons are caring people.
First list of Mormon beliefs.
Second list of Mormon beliefs.
Mormons are unusually secretive, dangerous, deceptive, or
insular.
Mormons represent traditional American values.
Mormons believe in what are often called traditional family
values.
The Mormon Church is large and growing rapidly.
Disagreement on whether Mormons are Christian.
The most frequent dimension of Mormonism in the sample study, whether or not
Mormonism is a Christian religion, varied over time in the sample study, but as Figure
4.12 shows, this dimension spiked in early December 2007, during the time Romney was
preparing, announcing and delivering his Faith in America speech. These data suggest
that reporters used this dimension as a way explaining Mitt Romney’s problem and that
Romney himself mentioned his relationship to Christianity during the speech as a way of
reassuring voters he was Christian, a fact that reporters thought was newsworthy.
125
1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 9-­‐Jan-­‐08 9-­‐Dec-­‐07 9-­‐Nov-­‐07 9-­‐Oct-­‐07 9-­‐Sep-­‐07 9-­‐Aug-­‐07 9-­‐Jul-­‐07 9-­‐Jun-­‐07 9-­‐May-­‐07 9-­‐Apr-­‐07 9-­‐Mar-­‐07 9-­‐Feb-­‐07 9-­‐Jan-­‐07 9-­‐Dec-­‐06 9-­‐Nov-­‐06 9-­‐Oct-­‐06 9-­‐Sep-­‐06 9-­‐Aug-­‐06 9-­‐Jul-­‐06 9-­‐Jun-­‐06 9-­‐May-­‐06 9-­‐Apr-­‐06 9-­‐Mar-­‐06 0 9-­‐Feb-­‐06 0.2 Figure 4.12: Presence of dimension: Mormons may or may not be Christian over time.315 N=196
This finding points to two additional ancillary findings from this study:
Ancillary finding 5.1: As Table 4.16 shows, Mitt Romney’s Mormonism was
often referred to in connection with the word “cult.”
More than 28 percent of the articles in this sample contained the word “cult” in
connection with Mormonism, as Table 4.16 shows.316
Table 4.16: Number and percentage of articles that contained the word “cult” in connection with Mormonism.
N=205.
Didn't use the word “cult” in connection with Mormonism
Used the word “cult” in connection with Mormonism
147
58
71.7%
28.3%
Ancillary finding 5.2: Even though polygamy was still frequently mentioned in
the coverage of Mormonism in the campaign, as it has been historically, reporters moved
away from mentioning polygamy as the coverage went on.
315
In interpreting this figure, it is important to note that the time sequence compresses the
data at the right of the chart because Mormonism was a much more frequent topic in the
news than it was earlier in the campaign.
316
This was found using a computerized word search within each article and not subject
to intercoder reliability. The context of these words was usually not direct statements
that Mormons were cult members but, instead, that evangelical Christians sometimes
think Mormonism is a cult.
126
Polygamy was in 27 percent of the sampled stories, but, as Figure 4.13 shows, the
frequency with which polygamy was mentioned generally declined as the campaign
coverage continued. The x-axis is the sequence of articles over time. The chart shows
that polygamy was mentioned early in the campaign, suggesting that as reporters were
introducing Romney to the nation in early 2006 and his “Mormon” problem, they often
used polygamy as one way of describing what it is about Mormonism that offends some
people.
0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 8-­‐Jan-­‐04 8-­‐Dec-­‐03 8-­‐Nov-­‐03 8-­‐Oct-­‐03 8-­‐Sep-­‐03 8-­‐Aug-­‐03 8-­‐Jul-­‐03 8-­‐Jun-­‐03 8-­‐May-­‐03 8-­‐Apr-­‐03 8-­‐Feb-­‐03 8-­‐Mar-­‐03 8-­‐Jan-­‐03 8-­‐Dec-­‐02 8-­‐Nov-­‐02 8-­‐Oct-­‐02 8-­‐Sep-­‐02 8-­‐Aug-­‐02 8-­‐Jul-­‐02 8-­‐Jun-­‐02 8-­‐May-­‐02 8-­‐Apr-­‐02 0 8-­‐Feb-­‐02 8-­‐Mar-­‐02 0.1 Figure 4.13: Frequency of mentions of whether a story mentioned polygamy or not in the coverage of Mitt
Romney. The x-axis is the sequence of stories over the two years of this study. For the y-axis, if 10 stories in sequence
mentioned polygamy, then the data would be a 1.0 at that point. If none did, then the data point would be at 0. N=196
Question 6: Did the news media portray Mormonism as a faith in the religious
mainstream? Were Romney’s views on issues portrayed as in the mainstream?
Finding 6: Romney’s views were seen as somewhat in the mainstream while his
Mormonism was conveyed as somewhat out of the mainstream.
As Table 4.17 shows, the average 1-to-5 Likert score for Romney’s views being
in the mainstream was 3.27, meaning his views were perceived by coders as slightly more
in the mainstream than out of it.
127
Table 4.17: Mean of articles’ Likert score assessments of Romney’s views being in the political mainstream. The
Likert scale was 1 to 5 with 1 being most out of the mainstream and 5 being most fully in the mainstream. N=205.
Mean Likert
score
Romney’s views
being in the
mainstream.
3.27
On the other hand, Romney’s Mormonism was conveyed as somewhat out of the
mainstream, as Table 4.18 shows. The mean scoring by coders was 2.34 on a 1-to-5
Likert scale.317
Table 4.18: Mean of articles’ Likert score of Mormonism being in the religious mainstream. The Likert scale was
1 to 5 with 1 being most out of the mainstream and 5 being most fully in the mainstream. N=205.
Average
Likert
score
Mean Likert score of Mormonism
being in the religious mainstream.
2.34
Question 7: To which historical campaigns was Mitt Romney’s candidacy most
frequently compared?
Finding 7: As Tables 4.19 and Figure 4.14 show, the Mitt Romney campaign was
compared to many campaigns where religion was a factor and to some where religion
was not mentioned. The most common comparisons where religion was a factor were to
John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign and to George Romney’s 1968 campaign.
Articles in the study compared Mitt Romney’s campaign to campaigns in which
religion was raised and to campaigns in which religion was not raised as an issue. More
than two dozen campaigns were compared to Mitt Romney’s campaign in the study. Mitt
Romney’s campaign was most often compared to John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential
campaign. Such comparisons occurred in 35 percent of the stories of this study.
317
See Appendix B for a deeper understanding of intercoder reliability of this.
128
Romney’s campaign was compared to his father’s 1967-1968 presidential campaign in
about 10 percent of the stories.318
Table 4.19: Comparisons to Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaign where religion was mentioned. This table
totals more than 205 articles because some articles mentioned more than one campaign. N for each line = 205
Candidate where religion is mentioned
No candidates mentioned
John F. Kennedy
George Romney
Orrin Hatch
Morris Udall
Al Smith
George W. Bush
Joseph Smith
Joe Lieberman
Jimmy Carter
John Kerry
Number articles with
mentions
Percentage of stories
112
73
27
8
6
9
4
7
7
3
3
54.6%
35.6%
13.2%
3.9%
2.9%
4.4%
2.0%
3.4%
3.4%
1.5%
1.5%
Figure 4.14 shows campaigns to which Romney’s campaign was compared when
the religion of the candidate was not mentioned.
318
Careful readers could have learned a great deal about religion in presidential politics.
In addition to these comparisons, the coverage included many other candidates for whom
religion was an issue – but only mentioned them once. These included John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, William Jennings Bryan, John C. Fremont, William Howard Taft,
Robert F. Kennedy, Dennis Kucinich, Arlen Specter, Pat Buchanan, Ed Muskie, Wesley
Clark, Al Sharpton and Milton Shapp. Of note, the prominent religious candidacies of
the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Pat Robertson in 1988 were not mentioned as points
of comparison to Romney.
129
18 16 14 12 10 17 8 6 10 4 2 4 4 3 0 Bob Dole Steve Forbes 5 2 Michael Paul George W. Jimmy Dukakis Tsongas Bush Carter John Kerry 3 John McCain Figure 4.14: Number of mentions of candidates before 2008 for whom religion wasn’t mentioned but whose
candidacy was compared with Mitt Romney’s 2008 campaign. N=205.
Question 8: Was Romney’s campaign framed differently in opinion writing than
in hard news coverage?
Finding 8: Opinion articles were less favorable about Mormonism, covered
Mormonism more extensively, and were more likely to suggest Romney was succeeding
than hard news stories were.
As Tables 4.20 through 4.25 show, opinion stories generally covered both
Romney’s chances and Mormonism more in depth than news stories. At the same time,
opinion articles, on average, viewed Mormonism less favorably than the news articles
and highlighted the elements of the campaign hindering Romney’s chances more
extensively. Furthermore, opinion articles cited polygamy more frequently; cited the
issue of whether Mormons are Christian more frequently; and cited Mormonism as a
barrier to Romney’s election chances more frequently than news articles did. Moreover,
opinion articles cited favorable dimensions of Mormonism less frequently than the news
articles.
130
Table 4.20 shows that news stories had fewer mainstream/favorable dimensions
than opinion stories did and fewer unfavorable/idiosyncratic stories.
Table 4.20: Average number of favorable/mainstream dimensions of Mormonism and average number of
unfavorable/idiosyncratic dimensions of Mormonism per story by story type. N=205
Average number of
favorable/mainstream Mormon
dimensions per article by story type.
News
(n=150)
Opinion
(n=55)
Average number of
unfavorable/idiosyncratic story dimensions
by story type.
1.67
2
1.85
2.67
Table 4.21 compares the percentages of whether an article had more dimensions
that were helping Mitt Romney be elected than hindering him. What emerges from this
table is that opinion writers were significantly more likely to use more dimensions that
were seen as hindering Romney’s chances than news writers did.
Table 4.21: Frequency of articles with greater proportions of helping dimensions, hindering dimensions, or
neither by story type. N=205.
News
(n=150)
Opinion
(n=55)
More helps
than
hindrances
42.67%
30.1%
29.33%
65.45%
18.00%
5.45%
More
hindrances
than helps
Neither
more helps
than
hindrances.
Table 4.22 suggests that opinion writers were more detailed than news writers in
assessing Romney’s chances and sometimes were more favorable in their assessment of
Romney’s chances of being elected; Table 4.23 suggests there were a greater number of
neutral overall assessments of Romney’s chances in opinion journalism than in hard news
journalism.
131
Table 4.22: Average number of dimensions seen helping Romney’s chances or hindering his chances at election
by story type, NOT including Mormonism. N=205.
News
(n=150)
Average
number of
helping
dimensions
Average
number of
hindering
dimensions
Opinion
(n=55)
1.77
1.49
.53
.85
Table 4.23: Percentage of articles with overall assessment of Romney’s campaign success, by story type. N=205.
Neutral
Succeeding
Suffering setbacks
News
(N=150)
58.00%
10.00%
32.00%
Opinion
(N=55)
69.09%
10.91%
20.00%
Table 4.24 shows which dimensions of the campaign were seen as either
hindering or helping Romney’s campaign. This table suggests that dimensions seen as
helping Romney’s chances were found less frequently than those hindering his chances.
Mormonism was seen as a far more frequent hindrance to Romney’s chances in opinion
stories than news stories. His campaign strategy was also seen as a bigger hindrance in
these stories. Table 4.24 also suggests how often commentators thought about Romney’s
Mormonism as an issue in the campaign, 68.67 percent of the news articles saw his
religion as a hindrance and 87.27 percent of opinion articles saw his religion as a
hindrance.
Table 4.24: Percentage of articles with study dimensions by story type. N=205.
News
(n=150)
Helps Dimension 1: Romney's morals and values
Helps Dimension 2: Romney’s experience, personality and intellect
Helps Dimension 3: Romney’s religion
Helps Dimension 4: Romney’s looks
Helps Dimension 5: Romney’s campaign organization and strategy
Helps Dimension 6: Romney's position on issues
Helps Dimension 7: Romney's family
Hinders Dimension 1: His religion
132
27.33%
32.00%
21.33%
8.67%
34.00%
26.67%
23.33%
68.67%
Opinion
(n=55)
21.82%
25.45%
21.82%
9.09%
30.91%
14.55%
21.82%
87.27%
Hinders Dimension 2: Romney’s changing opinions on issues
Hinders Dimension 3: Romney’s personality
Hinders Dimension 4: Romney’s wealth or Social status.
Hinders Dimension 5: Romney’s campaign and strategy
24.67%
5.33%
2.00%
21.33%
Opinion journalists were noticeably more likely to cite Mormon polygamy, less
likely to cite Mormon devotion, more likely to cite the size of the church, and more likely
to discuss Mormonism’s relationship to Christianity, as Table 4.25 makes clear.
Table 4.25: Percentage of Mormon dimensions by story type. N=205.
Percentage of stories containing various study dimensions about Mormonism
by story type
Mormon Dimension 1. Polygamy
Mormon Dimension 2: Mormons discriminate against women and people of color.
Mormon Dimension 3. Mormons are socially conservative or believe in “cleanliving.”
Mormon Dimension 4. Mormons are devout
Mormon Dimension 5 Mormons are caring people.
Mormon Dimension 6: List of Mormon beliefs.
Mormon Dimension 7. Second list of Mormon beliefs:
Mormon Dimension 8: Mormons are unusually secretive, dangerous, deceptive, or
insular.
Mormon Dimension 9: Mormons represent traditional American values
Mormon Dimension 10. Mormons believe in what are often called traditional
family values. Family commitment is central to their belief.
Mormon Dimension 11. The Mormon Church is large and growing rapidly.
Mormon Dimension 12. Disagreement on whether Mormons are Christian.
Contained the word “cult” in connection with Mormonism
News
(n=150)
21.33%
22.67%
Opinion
(n=55)
45.45%
29.09%
15.33%
47.33%
14.00%
38.00%
50.91%
21.82%
34.55%
12.73%
47.27%
49.09%
22.00%
27.33%
29.09%
41.82%
29.33%
34.00%
46.67%
26.67%
30.91%
43.64%
67.27%
32.73%
Part of the differences between these sets of numbers may be explained by the
fact that a higher percentage of the news stories lacked a Romney focus than the opinion
stories did – 28 percent to 18 percent. That is, opinion stories were more likely more
narrowly focused on the campaign and its issues.
Chapter five of this study includes four conclusions and discusses horserace
coverage and religion and the framing of Mormonism.
133
29.09%
10.91%
10.91%
34.55%
Chapter 5. Discussions and Suggestions
5.1 Responses to the Study’s Central Questions.
This was a study of how reporters met the challenge of covering a presidential
candidate characterized by religious difference. How did reporters frame Romney’s
chances? When was he seen as succeeding or suffering setbacks? What traits of his
Mormonism were emphasized? Was his religion portrayed as mainstream? Did reporters
use old stereotypes of Mormonism such as the long-abandoned practice of polygamy in
describing his faith? What facets of Romney’s character and personality were
highlighted? Was he seen as a candidate holding mainstream political views? To which
historical candidates did reporters compare Mitt Romney’s campaign in dealing with the
religion issue? Were there important differences between opinion and news coverage?
These questions inspired the study. Data provided useful answers that will be discussed
here.
Romney was seen as a mainstream candidate with the biggest hindrance shown to
be his religion by the sample coverage. Analysis also suggested Romney was seen more
often as suffering setbacks. His “Faith in America” speech was framed in the context of
suffering setbacks in the polls. Data also indicated Romney’s views were largely
mainstream and conservative – though he was seen as a candidate who might change his
views. At the same time, more unfavorable/idiosyncratic traits were used to describe his
religion than favorable/mainstream ones, but a rich, diverse portrayal of the Mormon
faith, if an inconsistent one, emerged. His Mormonism was, overall, portrayed as out of
the mainstream. He was most frequently compared with John F. Kennedy, even more so
than he was compared to his father, but Romney’s campaign was compared with many
134
candidacies. Opinion coverage in general was less favorable to Mormonism but was less
concerned with the horse-race than was hard news.
Items of conclusion and discussion follow. First are four major conclusions, and
second are lengthy discussions of horse-race coverage’s influence on portrayals of
religion and of the portrayal of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism in the coverage. A
discussion of the Kennedy narrative and of how the Romney campaign coverage provides
lessons for candidates of other minority religions follows.
5.2 Study Conclusions
The study data suggest four important conclusions.
Conclusion 1: Mormonism was seen as the most frequently cited hindrance
to Romney’s campaign in the story sample. Aside from Mormonism, news media
largely framed Mitt Romney as a competent, mainstream, if inauthentic, candidate
and those attributes seen as helping his election chances were cited with a greater
frequency than those attributes seen as hindering his chances.
Romney was seen as a mainstream candidate – there were more things helping
him than hindering him – in this study.
Among helping dimensions, Romney’s campaign strategy and organization was
the most frequent factor journalists and editorialists described as helping Romney. This
dimension was cited in 33.17 percent of the articles in this study. Articles citing
Romney’s experience, intellect and personality comprised 30.24 percent of the stories.
The least frequent asset cited was his looks, present in 8.78 percent of the stories. In
23.41 percent of the stories, Romney’s position on issues was said to be helping his
chances. His morals and values were cited as helping him in 25.85 percent of the stories.
His family was also in 22.93 percent of the articles. His Mormonism was seen as helping
him in 21.46 percent of the stories.
135
As for hindering dimensions, his Mormonism was seen as a hindrance in 73.66
percent of the sample stories. Romney’s wealth and his social status was seen as
hindering his chances in 4.39 percent of the stories, the least frequent hindering
dimension. Romney’s supposed lack of authenticity – what critics sometimes called his
changing position on issues – was mentioned as a political liability in 25.85 percent of the
stories, the most frequent hindrance to his campaign besides Mormonism and most
frequent specific evaluation of his character. His personality was seen a hindrance in
6.83 percent of the stories. Romney’s campaign organization and strategy was seen as
constraining in 24.88 percent of the stories.
When Romney’s religion was not included in these data, the frequency of
dimensions that were helping Romney’s chances was greater than hindering his chances.
Romney was framed as a mainstream candidate with Mormonism being his main
hindrance, judging by the data in this study. The stories examined in the study overall
mentioned more positive facets of Romney’s campaign and personality than facets that
hindered him.
The findings also showed that Romney’s Mormonism was described as hindering
him in 73.66 percent of the articles studied and as helping him in 21.5 percent of them.
Mormonism was seen as the most frequent challenge he had to overcome, and it was
viewed as far more hurtful to his chances than helping his chances, the data of this study
suggest.
Conclusion 2: The coverage overall portrayed Romney’s Mormonism in an
unfavorable light.
A central conclusion of this study is that the coverage in the aggregate gave an
overall unfavorable, out-of-the mainstream portrayal of Mormonism. In general,
136
Mormonism’s idiosyncrasies were found in the analysis to be highlighted in such a way
so as to distort and so as to make the faith appear out of the mainstream, according to the
data analysis.
Figure 5.1 shows that 51 percent of the articles had more unfavorable dimensions
than unfavorable ones, while only 26 percent had more favorable dimensions. More than
half the articles, therefore, left an out-of-the-mainstream, idiosyncratic, or unfavorable
impression because they contained a greater frequency of these unfavorable/idiosyncratic
dimensions. Table 5.1 shows the favorable/unfavorable dimensions used in this
calculation.
23% More favorable/
mainstream than unfavorable/
idiosyncratic Mormon dimensions More unfavorable/
idiosyncratic than favorable/mainstream Mormon dimensions 26% Neither more favorable/
mainstream nor unfavorable/
idiosyncratic Mormon dimensions 51% Figure 5.1: Percentage of articles where there were more favorable/mainstream, more unfavorable/idiosyncratic
dimensions or an equal number of those dimensions. N=205
Table 5.1: Favorable/mainstream and Unfavorable/idiosyncratic dimensions of Mormonism used in calculating
whether stories had more favorable/mainstream dimensions or more unfavorable/idiosyncratic beliefs.
Favorable/mainstream dimensions
Unfavorable/idiosyncratic dimensions
Mormons are caring
First list of Mormon beliefs.
Mormons are devout
Mormons once practiced polygamy
The Mormon Church is growing and successful.
Mormons discriminate
Mormons represent traditional American values
Mormons are deceptive, secretive, or insular
Mormons believe in family
Mormons may or may not believe in Christ
Mormons believe in clean-living
Second list of Mormon beliefs.
137
Other elements of the study support the impression that coverage of Mormonism
was unfavorable. More than 50 percent of the articles mentioned the question of whether
Mormonism is a Christian denomination. Because the nation is predominantly Christian,
framing Mormonism as outside Christianity puts it outside the religious mainstream, even
though many non-Mormon scholars have described the central values of the church as
traditional and middle American.319 Furthermore, traditionally Christian traits such
serving the poor and needy and helping people in a crisis – what this study called
“Mormons are caring people,” was the least frequently mentioned of all of the study
dimensions. Reporters rarely discussed the ways Mormons helped the poor and needy.
Writers used the frame that Mormons are mysterious, vague, secretive or
deceptive in 23.9 percent of the stories.320 This is an old Mormon stereotype, as is
discussed in Appendix J; Similarly 28.3 percent of the articles included Mormonism in
connection with the word “cult.”321 Both of these frames – “cult” and secrecy – make
two unfavorable concepts psychologically available to readers.
That having been said, it is important to say that many favorable traits of
Mormonism were nevertheless included in the coverage. Using four dimensions of
Mormonism from this study, an index “Mormons are good people” was created. This
index included the study variables: “Mormons are caring people,” “Mormons believe in
319
De Pillis, “The Emergence of Mormon Power Since 1945.”
320
As will be discussed in Appendix E, secrecy and silence seemed to be a stronger
theme in the coverage than just 23 percent, the data show. This is a qualitative
assessment, however, not meant to be a support for this conclusion. It may be useful to
other researchers.
321
This was not reporters saying directly that Mormonism is a “cult” but, instead,
reporting that some people or religions, often evangelicals, think Mormonism is a “cult.”
138
traditional family values,”322 “Mormons are devout” and “Mormons are socially
conservative and believe in clean-living.”
As Figure 5.2 shows, 58 percent of the articles in this study had at least one
element of this index in the articles – contained at least one thing that suggested that
Mormons are good people.
Traits showing Mormons as good people present 42% Traits showing Mormons as good people not present 58% Figure 5.2: Percentage of articles that have the any part of the index “Mormons are good people.” N=205.
When the focus was on Mitt Romney, as Table 5.2 shows, the dimensions of this
index were present with less frequency. When Romney was mentioned two or fewer
times, 76 percent of the articles included something from the index that Mormons are
good people.
322
A limitation of this index is one portion of this dimension about Mormon belief in
traditional families. This dimension includes Mormonism’s opposition to gay marriage.
To be sure, someone who thinks that gay marriage is a good idea would not think that
Mormons are “good people” for opposing gay marriage. Similarly, someone who
thought that traditional definitions of family were too limiting might also quibble with the
idea that Mormonism’s support for traditional families made them “good people.” This
limitation does not change the overall point of this conclusion – that reporters included
favorable portrayals of Mormons. What it might do is lower the frequency of those
portrayals – something, again, consistent with the overall sense of the data that these
favorable portrayals were less common than unfavorable ones.
139
Table 5.2: Percentage of stories that contained any part of the index “Mormons are good people” by story focus.
N=205
Story focus
Not Romney focus
(n=33)
Romney focus
(n=172)
Total
Had at
least one
dimension
of the
index
“Mormons
are good
people.”
Did not have a
dimension of
Mormonism of
the index
“Mormons are
good people.”
Total
25 (76 %)
8 (24 %)
33
94 (55 %)
119 (58 %)
78 (45 %)
86 (42 %)
172
205
Furthermore, readers often had to read deeply to find the favorable dimensions of
Mormonism in the coverage. As Table 5.3 shows, only 13 percent of the articles in this
study had more than two of the dimensions of this index in their articles.
Table 5.3: Number and percentage with dimension of the index “Mormons are good people.” N=205
Number of the dimensions of the index “Mormons are good people” in articles.
No dimensions of the index “Mormons are good people” were present
One of the four dimensions in the index was present
Two of the four dimensions of the index were present
Three of the four dimensions of the index were present
All of the dimensions of the index were present.
Total articles
86 (42 %)
61 (30 %)
30 (15 %)
19 (9 %)
9 (4 %)
Conclusion 3: Mormon polygamy remained an important way of describing
Mormonism during the campaign even though polygamy was not an issue during
the campaign.
The descriptions of Mormonism in the studied stories included frequent emphasis
on Mormonism’s history of polygamy. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints have not practiced polygamy in more than 100 years, and it is true that
reporters often acknowledged that fact. However, given that polygamy as an issue played
virtually no role in the 2008 campaign – for example, Romney nor any candidate
140
proposed legalizing polygamy – the use of polygamy clearly elicited less favorable
framing of Mormonism.
Polygamy was referenced twice as often – 27.7 percent versus 13.3 percent – as
the study dimension that “Mormons are caring people” and nearly twice as often as the
dimension that “Mormons believe in clean-living,” which was found in 17.07 percent of
the stories in this study.
Conclusion 4: The horse-race frame was paired with unfavorable portrayals
of Mormonism.
Unfavorable portrayals of Mormonism were correlated with horse-race framing,
the data of this study suggest. Given that polls showed that Mormonism was an important
issue hindering Mitt Romney’s prospects, reporters would naturally be drawn to
explanations that made Romney unacceptable to many American voters, citing
Mormonism’s more unfavorable traits as ways of explaining why the candidate might fall
behind in the race.
Consider, for example, this analysis from longtime Newsweek religion editor
Kenneth Woodward who wrote an editorial in The New York Times, “The Presidency’s
Mormon Moment:”
More Americans, polls show, are willing to accept a woman or an
African-American as president than a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It isn’t just evangelical Christians in the Republican base who find
Mr. Romney’s religion a stumbling block. Among those who identify
themselves as liberal, almost half say they would not support a Mormon
for president. Although with 5.6 million adherents Mormonism is the
nation’s fourth-largest denomination, 57 percent of respondents to a recent
CBS poll said they know little or nothing about Mormon beliefs and
practices. Mr. Romney needs to be their teacher, whether he likes that role
or not.
Among the reasons Americans distrust the Mormon church is
Mormon clannishness. Because every worthy Mormon male is expected to
141
be a lay priest in voluntary service to the church, the demands on his time
often leave little opportunity to cultivate close friendships with nonMormon neighbors. A good Mormon is a busy Mormon. Those – like Mr.
Romney – who serve as bishops (pastors of congregations) often find it
difficult to schedule evenings at home with their own families.
To many Americans, Mormonism is a church with the soul of a
corporation. Successful Mormon males can expect to be called, at some
time in their lives, to assume full-time duties in the church’s missions, in
its vast administrative offices in Salt Lake City or in one of many churchowned businesses. Mormons like to hire other Mormons, and those who
lose their jobs can count on the church networks to find them openings
elsewhere. Mr. Romney put those same networks to effective use in
raising part of his $23 million in campaign contributions.
Moreover, Mormons are perceived to be unusually secretive.323
A major suggestion of the correlation between horse-race coverage and
unfavorable portrayals of Mormonism is that news coverage that framed Romney’s
religion as a hindrance came in flurries, with intense coverage linked to specific events
and controversies on the campaign trail, followed by periods when news media
mentioned the “religion problem” less often.324 See Figure 5.3 that follows. A score of
“1” on this graph means that Mormonism as a hindrance was mentioned in each of 10
successive articles in the story sample, whereas a score of zero means that none of the 10
articles in succession mentioned Mormonism as a hindrance. Figure 5.3 shows that at six
points in Romney’s campaign, Mormonism as a hindrance spiked above 0.8:
• The first two spikes at the beginning of the campaign coverage during 2006
were largely because of Romney’s entry into the field – biographies and polls about him
and his campaign introduced Mormon issue and Romney to the nation.
323
Woodward, “The Presidency’s Mormon Moment.”
324
It should be noted that the variable “Mormonism is hindering Romney’s chances,” had
a relatively low intercoder reliability.
142
• The third spike came in early May 2007. That spike can largely be attributed to
Al Sharpton’s criticism of Mormonism, Romney’s response and Sharpton’s subsequent
visit to Salt Lake City.
• The fourth spike in October 2007 coincided with a few less dramatic events –
Mormon general conference, a few campaign features about Romney and the on-going
Mormon issue, and Romney’s effort to reach out to evangelicals.
• The fifth and most major spike in the coverage corresponded with Romney’s
“Faith in America” speech.
• The last spike included several issues, such as another round of campaign
features, but most prominently was a push poll in New Hampshire that mentioned
unflattering and distorted features of Mormon belief. The chart also shows the Mormon
issue faded after Romney’s speech in the sample coverage, especially after the Iowa
caucuses. Reporters, perhaps, began to see Romney’s chances fading after he lost in
Iowa and began downplaying his Mormonism as an issue.
1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0 Date 3-­‐Jul-­‐06 4-­‐Dec-­‐06 8-­‐Feb-­‐07 6-­‐Apr-­‐07 28-­‐Apr-­‐07 10-­‐May-­‐07 22-­‐May-­‐07 22-­‐Jun-­‐07 26-­‐Jul-­‐07 2-­‐Sep-­‐07 8-­‐Oct-­‐07 25-­‐Oct-­‐07 15-­‐Nov-­‐07 20-­‐Nov-­‐07 3-­‐Dec-­‐07 4-­‐Dec-­‐07 6-­‐Dec-­‐07 7-­‐Dec-­‐07 7-­‐Dec-­‐07 9-­‐Dec-­‐07 12-­‐Dec-­‐07 14-­‐Dec-­‐07 17-­‐Dec-­‐07 23-­‐Dec-­‐07 6-­‐Jan-­‐08 26-­‐Jan-­‐08 1-­‐Feb-­‐08 4-­‐Feb-­‐08 0.2 Figure 5.3: Time sequence of when Mormonism was described as a hindrance for Mitt Romney in the coverage.
The x-axis is the sequence of stories over the two years of this study. For the y-axis, if 10 successive stories mentioned
Romney’s Mormonism as a hindrance, then the data would be a 1.0 at that point. If none did, then the data point would
be at zero. (N=196)
143
Furthermore, the number of stories as determined by the study’s sampling – four
mentions of Mormonism and one of Romney – faded after the Iowa defeat. This fact is
another example of a connection between horse-race journalism and Mormonism. The
horse race moved onto other issues and candidates. Mormonism became less of an issue
after the Iowa caucuses so there were fewer articles to study.
Articles discussing Mitt Romney and his Mormonism included detailed
discussions of Mormon beliefs and practices. Rather than avoiding doctrinal discussion,
these data showed – depending on how a scholar might count – that roughly 85 percent of
the articles in this study included some discussion of Mormon doctrine or the faith’s
beliefs and practices. This compares with earlier research that suggests that reporters
only discuss doctrine in 7 percent of all religious stories.325 This comparison suggests
that horse-race coverage of Romney was linked to more detailed discussions of religious
doctrine and belief than is the usual norm among reporters.
5.3 Religion and Horse-race Coverage.
To no one’s surprise, the news media coverage of the 2008 election was framed
largely as a horse race, just as the news media have framed elections for years. A Pew
study said as many as nine in 10 articles in the primary season were framed as a
horserace – more than any other campaign in history.326 Despite repeated calls over the
years to focus more on the issues and less on who is ahead in the race, reporters still
325
Center for Media and Public Affairs, “The Media Get Religion,” 3.
326
Katherine Q. Seelye, “2008 coverage focuses on the horserace,” New York Times,
October 29, 2007, under The Caucus Blog, at
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/2008-coverage-focuses-on-the-horserace/, accessed September 21, 2010.
144
made the horse race central to the 2008 campaign coverage. The central criticism of
horse-race coverage remains – that it often provides voters with insufficient information
to truly evaluate a candidate. This study’s data supported Pew’s analysis of the coverage.
The news media’s preoccupation with the horse-race is crucial in explaining why
reporters characterized Mormonism in the campaign, which was, in the aggregate, an
unfavorable portrayal, dotted with occasional distortions such as frequent references to
polygamy. Reporters who are focused primarily on who is winning (and who is losing)
tend to put a candidate’s beliefs, policy positions and qualifications into that narrow
frame of reference. Therefore, journalists in 2008 were preoccupied with how
Mormonism might affect Romney’s chances of winning the horse race and less interested
in explaining the details of Mormonism and how it might influence Romney’s
worldview, his policy positions or even his judgment. In the search for explanations for
who was ahead or behind, reporter’s logic seems to have often worked like this: Polls or
similar facts showed Romney had a problem because of his Mormonism. The reason that
Mormonism was a problem was because his beliefs were seen as beyond the pale or
heretical to certain important groups of non-Mormon Republican primary voters.
Reporters then often followed with a list of some of those beliefs or religious attributes
that these critics had singled out. Reporters made Romney’s Mormonism into an issue
because of real-world facts. Polls, experts, and voters themselves often said that
Romney’s Mormonism was a problem, and writers were focusing on a genuine electoral
challenge, so journalists had to write about the issue, but the frequent failure to avoid
some stereotypes and other distortions raises questions of fairness.
145
That the horse race was prominent in the coverage of Mitt Romney and his
Mormonism is clear. First, at least 86 percent of the stories an element of horse-race
coverage – the articles had either an assessment of things helping or hindering Romney’s
chances or had an assessment of whether Romney was succeeding or suffering setbacks.
Second, the coverage of Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” speech, the clear highpoint of
coverage about Mormonism in the campaign, was framed through the lens of Romney
suffering setbacks, as the data show, so Romney’s decision to deliver the “Faith in
America” speech was framed as a horse-race story.
This study teases the possibility that horse-race coverage could have a direct
effect on elections because of how frames influence voters. This study, therefore,
proposes a horse-race influence model that suggests that after a poll is conducted
showing a candidate suffering setbacks or reporters suggesting that a candidate is facing
obstacles, reporters need to explain those setbacks or obstacles. Those explanations,
which can be based on conjecture, naturally highlight the weaknesses of a candidate or
detailed facets of a challenge. For those from minority religions, as Romney is, such
horse-race coverage seems to lead to a focus on what is unusual in the religion as a way
of explaining how the religion might pose electoral challenges. Those weaknesses and
idiosyncrasies, framing theory stipulates, may bring negative impressions of a candidate
– or of a candidate’s religion – into a voter’s mind influencing voter choice. This negative
impression would be reflected in the next round of polling, sometimes creating a
feedback loop that could hinder the electability of a candidate. A visual version of this
proposed model comprises Figure 5.4.
146
Figure 5.4: Horse-race influence model.
To be sure, much work needs to be done to confirm this model including framing
effects studies on voters themselves, but should this theory hold true, it would provide yet
147
another reason for reporters to reduce the amount of horse-race coverage they use during
an election campaign.
With its focus on conflict, horse-race coverage is naturally prone to play up
religious differences between candidates and voting blocs. Thus, in the 2008 Republican
nomination race, news audiences heard a great deal about what separated Mormonism
from other American religions, and a good deal less about what it has in common with
other American religions. So, in 2008, the focus on horse-race coverage thus ran
contrary to the ideal of “public religion,” the notion that Americans should agree to
disagree over those religious differences that cannot be bridged and instead focus on
shared values and beliefs.
Given this horse-race coverage influence model, one has to wonder if the horserace coverage of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism influenced perceptions about the Mormon
religion as well.327 As Appendix D shows, public opinion polls suggested that
Mormonism remained broadly misunderstood following the campaign and, if anything,
Americans perceived Mormonism less favorably following the campaign.
Did coverage of Romney’s campaign and polls about his religion also contribute
to an anti-bandwagon effect that weakened his chances? A 2006 study suggests that when
the media frame a candidate as winning, this framing enhances the public perception of
the candidate’s electability. A sort of band-wagon effect emerges, gathering voters and
helping the candidate build success, according to political scientist Stephen Farnsworth
327
See Appendix D for further assessment of the potential influence of the Romney
coverage on Mormonism and on Romney’s chances.
148
and communication scholar S. Robert Lichter.328 The theoretical framework set out by
Farnsworth and Lichter therefore suggests the possibility of an ‘anti-bandwagon’ effect
as well. Did the constant reporting upon Romney’s “Mormon problem” and eventually
upon his eroding support influence undecided voters to move to other candidates?
Some horse-race coverage is probably inevitable. “You can no more divorce
‘horseracism’ … from campaign coverage than you can divorce horseracism from the
coverage of horse races,” as Slate media critic Jack Shafer put it.
During an actual horse race, nobody wants to hear the announcer
drone on about the ponies’ dietary regimes. They want to know who's
winning, who’s gaining, who’s in the thick of it, and who can be written
off. Are the front-runners burning themselves out and letting a back
marker take the prize? That which cannot be compressed into an
announcer’s play-by-play ends up in the learned pages of the Daily Racing
Form. But for immediacy, nothing rivals a great horse-race take. 329
But what happens to the political process when the focus of coverage is on the ins
and outs and stops and starts of winning and losing? Are voters getting sufficient
information to deliberate intelligently on candidates and their policies? In the Romney
2008 coverage, news media, responding to the polls, may have stressed the sensational
and misled voters about Romney’s religion. Did the coverage of Mormonism that
followed polls create an anti-Mormonism effect?330
328
Stephen J. Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter, “The 2004 Democratic Primary and
Network News,” The Harvard International Journal of Press Politics, (Winter 2006),
11:1; 53-63.
329
Jack Shafer, “In Praise of Horse-Race Coverage. If campaigns are contests, then why
not obsess on who’s winning?” Slate.com, posted Posted Thursday, January 24, 2008,
under Press Box, media criticism, at http://www.slate.com/id/2182751/, accessed
February 8, 2011.
330
Did it also create an anti-Mormon effect as has been suggested has happened over
time about evangelicals? See Bolce and De Maio, “A Prejudice for the Thinking
classes.”
149
It appears that religion is used to frame the horse race of a campaign. How is
religion used to frame the ideology and policy views of a presidential candidate? Or does
horse-race coverage neglect the issue positions of candidates despite religion? Scholar
Doug Underwood has said political reporting neglects how religion shapes the views and
personalities of politicians and often ignores how treligion shapes character. Given the
role religion played in the 2008 campaign, Underwood’s study deserves broader
consideration here. Underwood’s historical example was Richard Nixon, a Quaker.
Underwood writes that reporters used Nixon’s Quakerism to show that he was a
hypocrite: His moralistic public attitude contrasted an observed darkness in his personal
character.
But this is a simplistic caricature, particularly in the presentation of
Quakerism as a pious religion that could have produced a Nixon only if he
proved to be a wayward product of the faith in which he was raised. …
Journalists often have a limited and superficial understanding of
presidents’ religious beliefs and the role that denominational differences
play in their theological and political outlook.331
Underwood explains the details of a schism within American Quakerism as it
confronted modernity. One part of Quakerism, the one Nixon followed, became strongly
evangelical. Another part of Quakerism maintained a more anti-war and also secular
outlook. The painful schism in Quakerism and Nixon’s evangelical conversion could go
a long way in explaining his conflicted personality, Underwood said.
Where Nixon may have been blinded by overweening ambition,
the press’s blindness to the nuances of religious life in the United States
deprived its audience of the fullest possible understanding of the religious
331
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, 193
150
wellsprings of Nixon’s inner nature and the way these translated into his
political actions.332
Underwood’s point seems to be the news media abdicate their responsibility when
they fail to help people understand the nuanced way religion influences candidates and
instead limit their framing of a candidate’s religion.333
As Underwood suggests, Mormonism might have been demystified or made more
comprehensible to the non-Mormon news audience if reporters had put energy into
examining how Mormonism might shape the policies, action and philosophy of a
President Romney. Reporters thereby missed an opportunity to link religion more closely
to the electoral process in meaningful ways.
Even though it is true that Romney chose not to address the specifics of his faith,
it is hard to conceive that a president of faith would not be influenced by religious beliefs
as he or she set the tone and formulated policies of his or her administration. George W.
Bush, for example, said his personal faith guided his life and presidency. “I love the fact
that people pray for me and my family all around the country. Somebody once asked me
one time, how do you know? I just feel it,” he said.334 A 2007 paper by Alexandra
Kougentakis at the University of Pennsylvania argued that Bush’s evangelical belief
shaped his compassionate conservative public policy and his acceptance of neo-
332
Ibid.
333
Ibid., 192-205.
334
“George W. Bush on Faith,” Beliefnet.com, under On His Personal Faith, at
http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/2004/07/George-W-Bush-On-Faith.aspx,
accessed March 24, 2011.
151
Conservatism in foreign policy because both were in accord with evangelical and
Christian fundamentalist beliefs.335
In 1968, David Broder and Stephen Hess reported on how George Romney’s
Mormonism was central to his worldview and to his ideas of governance. Their coverage
provides a rough template of how a reporter ideally might have reported on his son’s
campaign. For example, they wrote: “Economic Romneyism probably is an amalgam of
his Mormon experience (where the church organization – wards and stakes – grows by
addition and subtraction [and his experience in business.]”336 They wrote,
In order to bring George Romney into focus it is necessary to
examine the Church of the Latter-day Saints. It is almost certainly the
literal truth to say that Romney would not be a presidential contender were
it not for his religious faith; nothing else seems likely to have armed him
with the burning sense of mission that has carried him this far in the battle.
What is this church that produced him? What is there in it that evokes
the peculiar sort of energetic evangelism, the righteousness and selfrighteousness that underlie Romney’s unique political appeal and at the
same time cause so many of his political problems?
More than being merely American, Mormon doctrine is patriotically
American, reflecting a kind of romantic nationalism peculiar to the 19th
century. As a devout Mormon, Romney firmly believes that both church
and country have a manifest destiny. Addressing a 1966 Lincoln Day
dinner in Boston, he said: “I believe that the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution are divinely-inspired documents, written by men
especially raised up by their Creator for that purpose. I believe God has
made and presented to us a nation for a purpose—to bring freedom to all
the people of the world.” This is purest Mormon teaching … but exotic
fare for the average American Republican contributor.337
335
Alexandra Kougentakis, “How the Influence of Religion Makes the Foreign Policy of
the Bush Administration Revolutionary, and How This Has Affected Our Relations with
European Allies,” March 28, 2007, at
http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=curej&seiredir=1#search=%22Alexandra+Kougentakis+paper+bush%22, accessed July 27, 2011.
336
Stephen Hess and David Broder, “George Romney: Candidate Whose Problem is
Words,” Washington Post, Times-Herald” November 30, 1967, F1.
337
Ibid.
152
Broder and Hess next brought up the somewhat common idea that Mormons are a
paradox between “typicality and peculiarity.”338 They used this idea to gain insight into
George Romney’s governance:
Partly because they had been a highly disciplined and persecuted
minority, the Mormons brought a history of cooperative action to Utah,
where Romney spent most of his boyhood. The tradition was further
developed there by the need for communal water control. Thus, they
added to the existing image of the Western pioneer as an attractive, if
somewhat contradictory fellow: Part rugged individualist, part
communitarian; self-sufficient, yet quick to meet common problems with
cooperative efforts. Sometimes the two strains did not quite mesh. In the
Mormons, a social idealism seemed to be warring with a politicaleconomic conservatism. During the depression of the 1930s, for example,
their leaders could set up a most elaborate public welfare program while
being, at the same time, pungently hostile to the New Deal. Perhaps it is
the Western-Mormon ambivalence that makes Romney’s views so hard to
pigeonhole. Nelson Rockefeller calls him a progressive while Barry
Goldwater says he “makes as conservative a speech as I’ll ever make in
my life.” Both are right.339
In the same vein, Bushman, the Mormon scholar, used Mormon history to tell of
two important ways Mormonism might influence Mitt Romney’s approach to issues. At a
Pew Forum for journalists in 2007 he said,
Mormonism gave up on its radicalism because the United States
government beat it out of them. They were forced to the point of
extinction and then realized it all had to be abandoned to preserve their
existence as Mormons. As a result, everything became secular. Mormons,
in reaction to this treatment, turned to laissez faire liberalism, having no
confidence in the government. Their history gave them no reason to trust
the United States government as an agency of the people.
…How does all of this bear on Romney? I think the obvious
question is, How far will he trust government when his Mormon heritage
teaches him to be distrustful of government? His instincts will be
skeptical.340
338
Ibid.
339
Ibid.
340
Pew forum, “Mormonism and Politics: Are they compatible?”
153
Bushman said Mormonism also has had a populist and idealistic streak. Joseph
Smith’s 1844 campaign developed a proposal for eliminating slavery. Smith fought for
prison reform and the rights of seamen. This civic idealism is part of Mormonism’s
story, he said:
How, then, does all that apply to Mitt Romney’s candidacy? The
question in my mind is, Can he tap into this vein of civic idealism in
American culture? His 19th-century Mormon heritage gives him plenty to
work with. And I can assure you, from what I know of him, it’s his natural
bent to seek to be a good president in the moral sense.
Bushman applied this strain in Mormonism’s history to the debate over
healthcare.
His organization of healthcare in Massachusetts - though I gather
it’s falling on hard times now, being more expensive than anticipated was a hopeful sign, not just because Romney tried to solve a big problem,
but because he approached it as a pastoral problem. “How do you care for
the children of the commonwealth?” And he did it in a Mormon way. The
idea of talking personally to all of the politicians, trying to get some kind
of a consensus, is very much the way Mormon congregations work. There
is never a vote or a power struggle. The people strive for mutual consent.
It struck me as promising for Romney to work that way in the state.
So I leave that as a question …: How will he use the nation’s
government to solve the nation’s problem?341
Research for this dissertation found no depth reporting of the kind Bushman
encouraged nor of the kind modeled by Broder and Hess, and this seems to be a failure of
the coverage generally. An example of how the connection between Romney’s religion
and his campaign was missed was the mention of the “breakdown of the family” in Mitt
Romney’s “Faith in America” speech and in other parts of his campaign.342 Mormonism,
341
Ibid.
342
See also, Bacon, “Romney Reaches to the Christian Right. In a Conservative Crowd,
Candidate Talks About Marriage, Child-Rearing.”
154
especially in recent years, has made family and family-related issues central to its
teaching and political action. Romney may not have been voicing his church’s teaching
word for word, but what he said was fully consistent with it, and reporters might have
pointed that out. A 1995 document from church leaders often studied in Mormon homes
concluded:
We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who
abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will
one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the
disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and
nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government
everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and
strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.343
Romney likely wouldn’t wish to discuss the warnings Mormon leaders are
making, but thoughtful analysis of family breakdown and Mormonism’s views on it
could provide useful insight into Mitt Romney’s policies, just as Broder and Hess’s
discussion of Mormon economic views provided insight into George Romney. Reporters
might have tried to determine if Romney was being guided by the strong call within his
religion for government officials to adopt pro-family policies. Another example of an
issue connected closely with his religion is that of pornography, an important issue to the
Mormon Church and to Romney, as shown by his speech at Regent University.344
Romney did not advocate government censorship nor a strong government policy, but
news media neglected lengthy discussions of this conservative issue during the campaign.
343
The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
344
On the pornography issue, see, for example, the church’s website
combattingpornography.org. See CNN.com, “Romney blasts pornography, drugs
violence in new ad,” under politicalticker,
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/07/16/romney-blasts-pornography-drugsviolence-in-new-ad/, accessed March 24, 2011.
155
These two prominent issues –pornography and the breakdown of the family – failed to
become central parts of the national agenda during the campaign.
One important exception to these criticisms was how reporters discussed
Mormonism’s 1978 decision to remove its restriction from men of African descent to its
priesthood. While it is true that this discarded policy can make Romney or his
Mormonism appear racist, writers occasionally used Romney’s response to the issue as a
way of looking at his views on race relations. A New York Times article on the young
Mitt Romney included this:
A handful of students and prominent Mormons – including the
Arizona congressman Morris K. Udall and his brother Stewart, then
secretary of the interior – called for an end to the doctrine. Some Mormons
hoped the pressure would persuade the church to abandon its exclusion of
blacks, just as it had stopped endorsing polygamy.
Mitt Romney had walked in civil rights marches with his father and
said he shared his concern for racial equality. But neither publicly
questioned the church’s teachings.
“I hoped that the time would come when the leaders of the church
would receive the inspiration to change the policy,” Mr. Romney said.
When he heard over a car radio in 1978 that the church would offer blacks
full membership, he said, he pulled over and cried.
But until then, he deferred to church leaders, he said. “The way
things are achieved in my church, as I believe in other great faiths, is
through inspiration from God and not through protests and letters to the
editor.”345
Research for this study found no evidence that mainstream news organizations
attempted to assess in depth and detail how the Book of Mormon, Mormonism’s
companion scripture to the Bible, might influence the thinking of a devout Mormon such
as Romney. Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon was hidden to come forth as a
345
David D. Kirkpatrick, “In ‘60s, Romney, Searching and Earnest, set his path,” New
York Times, November 15, 2007, 1.
156
work of prophecy for a modern day.346 Therefore, a Mormon leader might likely look at
its stories of wars and terrorism as important analogies for modern problems. Without
discussing it too deeply here – see Appendix K for more detail – Mormons believe the
Book of Mormon is the story of three civilizations in the New World, two of which were
entirely destroyed due to wickedness. The book includes numerous stories of leaders
dealing with war and what might be seen as terrorist organizations the Book of Mormon
calls “secret combinations.” These “combinations” led to the destruction of these
civilizations. One so informed might expect to see a candidate like Romney take an
uncompromising stand against terror groups, for example. The Book’s teachings might
be seen as uniquely important to a Mormon, regardless of how a non-Mormon might
perceive the writing. A Mormon candidate could be reasonably expected to look to the
Book of Mormon for guidance, and research for this study found no articles discussing its
teachings in detail.347 Even if Romney refused to answer questions about belief, it is
surely important for non-Mormons to understand more fully what the Book of Mormon
teaches insofar as it might influence a leader. Reporters or editorialists could have written
about this topic. Numerous metaphors and threads can be found on important topics in
Mormon scripture, including potentially intriguing views on poverty, on
environmentalism, on pre-emptive war, and on the notion of American exceptionalism.348
346
Lesson 1: “The Keystone of our religion,” Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Under Book of Mormon: Gospel Doctrine
Teacher’s Manual, at http://lds.org/manual/book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-teachersmanual/lesson-1-the-keystone-of-our-religion?lang=eng&query=%22for+our+day%22,
accessed March 12, 2011.
347
Helaman 6:38.
348
See Appendix K.
157
To be sure, Mormon teaching can produce public figures as diverse as
conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck and moderately liberal Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid, but as Broder and Hess showed in their writing about George Romney,
reporters can provide insights into policies a candidate may embrace as president by
explicating a candidate’s religious views.
The present study suggests a need for issue-based reporting and for a greater
focus on understanding all aspects of a candidate who might assume the most powerful
office in the land. There were legitimate reasons to write about what people didn’t like
about Romney’s beliefs. However, that coverage would have been more informative if
reporters had worked to understand more fully and then to convey more of the faith that
shapes Mitt Romney’s worldview.
The most frequent assessment of Romney’s character found in the stories of this
study was that it lacked authenticity: Romney was a flip-flopper and his true agenda was
elusive. Are there links between Mormonism and this framing of Romney’s personality?
To be sure, a lack of authenticity is a common accusation leveled at many politicians.
However, did the fact that Romney’s religion was sometimes framed as secretive and that
his reluctance to talk in detail about its tenets contribute to his image of being seen as
“inauthentic” in press coverage? An emerging line of research in political science
suggests that Romney’s supposed lack of authenticity may have had some links to his
Mormonism. 349 A pair of researchers at MIT and Princeton suggested that respondents
to polls may hide deep-rooted religious bias in their answers to poll questions, wishing to
349
See, for example, James G. Kane, Stephen C. Craig, and Kenneth D. Wald,
“Religion and Presidential Politics in Florida: A List Experiment,” Social Science
Quarterly, 85, no. 2, (June 2004), 281.
158
avoid being perceived as bigoted. The researchers, Adam Berinsky and Tali Mendelberg,
said people mask an “unacceptable” stereotype they are unwilling to admit to behind an
“acceptable” stereotype because the acceptable stereotype carries a neutral label. In their
study, people replaced an unacceptable stereotype – that Jews are greedy or shady – with
an “acceptable” one – that Jews are too liberal – in their responses to questions. People
in the study were significantly less likely to vote for a hypothetical Jewish liberal than a
hypothetical non-Jewish liberal, even if these hypothetical candidates held identical
views.350
Might this phenomenon have been in play with Mitt Romney? Did some people
use the seemingly acceptable label of an inauthentic flip-flopper as a way to hide that
what they really opposed was Mormonism? A study conducted at Vanderbilt University
suggests this may have been the case, at least sometimes. Vanderbilt political scientist
John Geer, working with Brett Benson and Jennifer Merolla, used a series of Internet poll
questions and determined the “flip-flopper” tag stuck to Mitt Romney in ways that it
didn’t affect his opponents because of Mormonism. Geer told the Vanderbilt News
Service that “many admit it is Mormonism and not his flip-flopping” that was the real
issue.351
350
Adam J. Berensky and Tali Mendelberg, “The Indirect Effects of Discredited
Stereotypes in Judgments of Jewish Leaders,” American Journal of Political Science, 49,
no. 4, (October 2005): 845-864.
351
Ann Marie Deer Owens, Vanderbilt News Service, “Vanderbilt poll explains why
Romney’s flip-flopper label sticks; Political scientist says anti-Mormon bias finds cover,”
under VU Cast, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases/2008/1/18/vanderbilt-pollexplains-why-romneys-flip-flopper-label-sticks-political-scientist-says-anti-mormonbias-finds-cover, accessed April 12, 2010. See also, Brett Benson, John G. Geer, and
Jennifer L. Merolla, “Using Cover Issues to Express Bias in the 2008 Presidential
Campaign,” A Paper prepared for the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Western Political
Science Association.
159
Did Romney himself elicit old stereotypes of the supposed secretive nature of
Mormonism? Was this old stereotype part of the reason that Romney was framed as an
elusive politician? It could be argued that the framing of Mitt Romney as a handsome,
articulate man with a hidden agenda echoed classic Mormon stereotypes from the 19th
century. It could also be argued that Romney’s choices played into those old stereotypes.
What best explains the way Romney was framed? Was it those latent stereotypes? Was it
Romney’s personal choices that led to the framing? These are media effects questions,
beyond the scope of this study, that merit attention.
The frame of elusiveness, mystery or secrecy in these data seems to go beyond
what the quantitative data of this study indicate. Appendix E comprises a simple,
qualitative analysis that suggests that 57 articles in this study seemed to have some
reference to secrecy, to mystery or to hiding something by Mormons or by a presidential
candidate in the context of the Romney campaign. Those 57 comprise nearly 28 percent
of the articles in this study. Combining these 57 articles with the articles that contained
the formal study’s dimension of “Mormons are unusually secretive, dangerous or
unusually insular” into an index, and 90 articles in this study – 44 percent of the articles –
had at least one of these two components of the secrecy theme in them. Now, it is
important not to make too much of this index and this linkage because of the qualitative
nature of this observation. Nevertheless, the data and examples taken together do seem to
suggest that the old Mormon stereotype of secrecy was a frequent element in the
coverage. The data in this study also suggest that the issue of secrecy was important in
other ways – noteworthy given journalistic culture of openness and fighting secrecy.
160
One of the intriguing contrasts between the coverage of Mitt Romney’s campaign
and his father’s campaign in 1968 is the fact George Romney was not widely
characterized in the news media as a flip-flopper the way his son was. This is the case
even though George Romney changed his views on the leading issue of his day, the
conflict in Viet Nam, coming out against the war and saying his earlier support had been
due in part to “brainwashing” by American military officers who briefed him. That
statement hurt him, but not because he afterward was portrayed as a flip-flopper, but
because the media trumpeted his brainwashing comment, making him look indecisive,
incompetent and naïve. George’s political opponents, notably the AFL-CIO (working
against Romney with a detailed political pamphlet), did try to cast the Michigan governor
as a flip-flopper.352 But news media chose to frame his position changes as as imprecise
and inarticulate – as a “candidate whose problem is words,” to use Broder’s phrase.353
Why didn’t the flip-flopper label stick to George Romney in the historical record and
become a larger part of the 1968 campaign, even though some of his political adversaries
tried? And why did the label stick to Mitt Romney?
In the context of contemporary campaign reporting, Mitt Romney’s strategy of
silence about his Mormon beliefs can be seen as a public relations blunder. He
picked a course far different from that of his father in terms of religion. George Romney
regularly talked to reporters about his faith. He spoke in Mormon churches and
responded to questions about his faith in public forums.354 In announcing his presidential
352
Michigan AFL-CIO. Who is the Real George Romney? A pamphlet prepared about
Governor George Romney during his run for the presidency.
353
For a fuller discussion of the media and the George Romney campaign with footnotes,
see Appendix I.
354
See appendix F for a complete, detailed discussion of the George Romney campaign.
161
candidacy, George Romney said he had fasted and prayed for guidance from God.355 But
given the recent rise of the Protestant evangelical ‘religious right’ in GOP presidential
nomination politics and given the evangelicals’ distrust of Mormonism, Mitt Romney
decided to say as little as possible about the specific tenets of his faith.356 This approach
was sometimes framed by reporters as being hesitant, if not evasive.357 It is interesting to
speculate about how press and public would have responded if Romney had openly
discussed his faith and cast it as an example of a broad, uplifting American story:
pioneers going west to stake out a life of their own, free to worship as they saw fit.
Finding the right rhetoric to construct such a frame might not have been easy, as the
Mormon historian Richard Bushman said in a discussion with journalists sponsored by
Pew during the campaign.358
Romney’s “Faith in America” speech missed the opportunity to use Mormon
history and culture – seeking religious freedom, overcoming persecution, caring for the
poor, building amid daunting challenge on the Western frontier, volunteering in
disproportionate numbers to serve in the American military – to explain himself, his
family and his faith and to link them to American traditions.359
However, that Romney’s Mormonism was also seen as a help to his chances in
about one in five stories is significant. This finding underscores the fact that the coverage
355
David D. Kirkpatrick, “For Romney, A Course Set Long Ago,” New York Times,
December 18, 2007, 1.
356
Steve LeBlanc, “Romney says he’s religious, but won’t discuss Mormon doctrine,”
Associated Press, June 6, 2006.
357
See, for example, Luo, “Mormons and the Bible, Every Word.”
358
Pew Forum, “Mormonism and politics. Are they compatible?”
359
This makes Romney similar to Gov. Al Smith in 1928. See Hostetler, “Gov. Al Smith
Confronts the Catholic Question,” 12-24.
162
of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism sometimes highlighted benefits and favorable attributes of
Mormonism, even though in more texts Mormonism was seen as a hindrance and
portrayed as out of the mainstream.
5.4 Depictions of Mormonism.
Two things must be said up front about the coverage of Mitt Romney’s
Mormonism in the campaign coverage of 2008. First, the study strongly suggests that the
coverage was no repeat of the 19th century coverage, which filled with invective and the
stereotyping of Mormons as villains. It might be said the 2008 Romney coverage
demonstrates how far the relationship between Mormons and other Americans has come.
Second, study findings indicate that thorough, careful readers could learn a great
deal about Mormonism if they read enough of the coverage – central doctrines as well as
obscure ones mixed with important details about the history of the faith. The coverage of
Mitt Romney’s Mormonism was rich and detailed.
Nevertheless, a central conclusion this study supports is that the coverage in the
aggregate gave an overall unfavorable, out-of-the-mainstream depiction of Mormonism.
There were lots of reasons for this characterization, but, in general, Mormonism’s
idiosyncrasies were highlighted in such a way so as to distort and so as to make the faith
appear out of the mainstream. One might add that aspects of other candidate’s faiths
might also appear strange to many voters if highlighted in similar ways. Religious details
such as transubstantiation or the virgin birth or the miracles of Jesus or the Prophet
Mohammad could have been scrutinized, yet these beliefs were not raised in the news
texts nor did they become issues in the race. It is difficult to describe how doctrinal
differences affect a political campaign, but it is clear that describing religious doctrine
163
accurately in context becomes essential to solid news reporting. Such reporting was
sometimes a challenge for reporters during the Romney campaign. Given that
Mormonism has no organized catechism, and given that reporters have limited space with
which to describe a faith, especially as Shipps has said, when it is considered in parts,
Mormonism can sound unusual.360 Consider some examples of distortion that appeared in
the coverage:
• First, the continued emphasis on polygamy was a distortion of modern Mormon
belief. Mormons have not practiced polygamy in more than 100 years, and comparing
Mormonism to something it abandoned more than a century ago is akin to consistently
discussing the Democratic party’s support of Jim Crow laws 100 years ago. 361
• A second example of distortion is that writers focused on Mormon garments –
the underwear that Mormons wear as a reminder of their faith. A focus on Mormon
underwear, even if infrequent, titillates and does little to elucidate belief. Newsweek’s
cover story on Mitt Romney mentioned these garments; and Sridhar Pappu’s questioned
Romney about Mormon garments for an early campaign feature in The Atlantic. Pappu’s
article, not part of this study’s official story population, was mentioned in Time
magazine’s profile on Romney, which was.362
360
Luo, “Crucial Test for Romney on Speech on His Religion.”
361
This is also no call to remove all references to polygamy. Sometimes polygamy was
newsworthy. Romney’s campaign jokes about only having one wife seemed part of his
way of showing his credibility as a pro-family candidate and may have been legitimate
reasons to bring up polygamy. The HBO show Big Love also occurred during the
campaign. See Rachel Zoll, “Latter-day Saints, A Look at the Mormon Church,”
Associated Press, December 13, 2006.
362
Mike Allen, “Can a Mormon be president?” Time, December 4, 2006, 50. In fairness
to journalists, this comparison was rare and some of those mentioning it were critical of
those who brought it up.
164
• A third example of how Mormonism was sometimes mischaracterized was how
the media handled issues raised by Mike Huckabee. In asking whether Jesus and Satan
were brothers – a simplistic presentation of Mormon belief on the origin of the devil –
Huckabee set up reporters to discuss the issue for a few days. The New York Times
religion reporter Laurie Goodstein devoted an article to Mormon belief as a direct result
of the Huckabee’s question.363
• A fourth example of distortion and how the media focused on the unusual was
the occasional mention – found about five times in the sampled stories – of the belief
Mormons hold that Jesus Christ will return to Missouri and preside from there during a
1,000-year period of peace. While this idea is accurate in a technical sense, the
presentation of this doctrine was distorted by the amount of space journalists had with
which to explain the scriptural basis for this complex Mormon belief.364 For example,
Richard Ostling’s Washington Post op-ed primer on Mormon belief in the early stages of
Romney’s campaign said this: “[Joseph] Smith had further revelations, which Mormons
treat as scripture alongside the Bible, including that Jesus would eventually return and
reign from Missouri.” The Doctrine and Covenants to which Ostling seems to refer
comprises 138 sections and more than 200 pages. To make these teachings simply about
Christ in Missouri is a distortion.365 Suzanne Sataline in The Wall Street Journal’s front 363
Laurie Goodstein, “Huckabee Is Not Alone in Ignorance about Mormonism,” New
York Times, December 14, 2007, 37. Worthy of note, this study found no references to
the idea that journalists never questioned whether Huckabee was as innocent in this
remark as the headline to Goodstein’s article asserts. Huckabee’s background as a
prominent Baptist preacher makes it possible he knew of this distortion of Mormon belief
and whether Huckabee actually knew this distortion was a natural question to ask given
Huckabee’s background. Reporters neglected that question.
364
See Articles of Faith 1:10, Ether 12 and 13; D & C 42, 45 and 84.
365
Richard Ostling, “What is Mormonism?” Washington Post, February 18, 2007, B3.
165
page post-mortem on the Romney campaign made the Christ in Missouri idea a central
takeaway of her description of the Book of Mormon, a work in excess of 500 pages:
Mormonism began in 1830 after Joseph Smith, a farmer in upstate
New York, said an angel led him to some golden plates that contained a
“New World gospel” – the Book of Mormon. The book describes a visit to
America by Jesus, and his promise to return to rule from Missouri.366
Both of these descriptions of Mormon scripture are also arguably inaccurate.
• A fifth type of distortion was the overemphasis of perceived racism. It has been
more than a quarter century since Mormons ended their ban on men of African descent
receiving its priesthood. The end of this restriction happened in the life of Mitt Romney
and is, therefore, relevant to his approach to civil rights and in the coverage of Mitt
Romney’s religion. The frequent focus on this restriction and Mormonism’s beliefs
about and treatment of women and minorities appears to have added to unfavorable
impressions in the framing of Mormonism.
Mormonism was often described as “unusual” or with a related word. Table 5.4
shows the frequency of “unusual” and various synonyms of this word in the sample
coverage.367
Table 5.4: Frequency of articles using synonyms of unusual to describe Mormons or Mormonism by article
source. N=205.
weird
AP
LAT
WP
NYT
N-week
0
1
1
2
0
odd
2
0
1
1
2
strange
unusual
0
2
3
0
9
idiosyncratic
0
2
2
4
0
different
0
0
1
1
0
peculiar
6
2
3
3
0
1
0
1
0
0
bizarre
0
0
0
1
0
alien
0
0
1
1
0
totals
9
7
13
13
11
366
Sataline, “Tabernacle on Trial.”
367
This was done through a word search in the study’s .pdf formatted articles and was not
subject to intercoder reliability analysis. There was some overlap among articles with
these terms. Nor were the terms necessarily used as pejoratives.
166
Time
WSJ
CT
Totals
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
6
0
2
3
19
0
1
1
10
0
0
0
2
2
2
1
19
0
1
0
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
2
2
6
5
66
On the other hand, a careful reader could learn much that was very favorable from
Romney’s life as a Mormon. The articles in this study talked about Mormon programs of
helping the poor, of Mormon traditions of prayer, of paying tithing, of avoiding smoking
and drinking, and of performing forms of devotion, including volunteer missionary
service. They talked of Mormon devotion to family. More than half of the articles
contained some dimension of Mormon belief that could be considered admirable.
Specific anecdotes in the coverage showed how Romney could be a kind, devout
man. The Chicago Tribune’s front-page campaign profile of Mitt Romney’s life included
one of these anecdotes:
Romney’s personal wealth, now estimated at up to $250 million,
soared on the wings of his success. But what set him apart from other
business whizzes featured in friendly profiles of glossy magazines was the
decision Romney made in summer 1996. The 14-year-old daughter of a
Bain partner was missing in New York City. In an extraordinary move for
the easy money days of the mid-‘90s, Bain shut down for a week while
Romney and dozens of other employees flew to New York to walk the
streets in search of the girl. They set up a command center in a hotel. They
didn’t find her, but she turned up a week later, safe in New Jersey. 368
Sridhar Pappu’s Washington Post Style section front in December 2007
discussing the Mormon Temple that Romney helped build outside Boston included this
vignette of personal kindness shaped by Romney’s role as a lay minister:
It was also his job to reinvigorate those who served alongside him.
368
Tim Jones, “Smartest guy in the room; He’s a perfectly packaged overachiever with
all the answers, but one question remains: Who is the real Mitt Romney?” Chicago
Tribune, October 9, 2007, 1. Note here how the headline captures a plastic sense of
Romney that he is somehow unknowable.
167
Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen remembers a
period during Romney’s tenure as bishop when both Christensen and his
wife, Christine, were emotionally drained by their religious obligations.
One evening the couple sat at their kitchen table feeling depleted when
someone knocked on the door. In came Romney, on his way home from
work.
“I needed to come here and tell you that God loves you. He’s been
trying to tell you directly, and it doesn’t seem like you’re hearing him,”
Christensen recalls Romney saying. “The Lord must have given me the
message so that you could hear it for yourselves.” The Christensens both
broke down crying. 369
Reporters also often got at what this study tentatively defined as the “core
beliefs” of Mormonism. Mormons have no one agreed-upon set of catechisms that every
Latter-day Saint would call “core” in every circumstance, as explained in chapter two of
this study. That having been said, this study proposed one definition of “core” beliefs and
proposed a way of looking at how well journalists represented those beliefs. One of the
study’s dimensions, called in the study the “second list of Mormon beliefs” comes from a
set of beliefs Mormon missionaries first use to present the faith to those interested in
learning more about the church. 370 The study data shows that at least one of these beliefs
was mentioned in 49.8 percent of the articles. This is limited but important evidence that
journalists captured some of Mormonism’s core beliefs. Following is one example of
how this was done that comes from an article about a Mormon conference held during
Romney’s campaign:
Many of the weekend’s speakers defended the faith as a Christian
church despite the differences between Mormon theology and other faiths.
The Mormon church disavows the Christian tradition of the Trinity the
belief that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one body instead believing
the three were individuals united in a divine purpose. Mormons also
believe in the principle of continuing revelation, leaving their scriptural
369
Sridhar Pappu, “In Mitt Romney’s Neighborhood, A Mormon Temple Casts a Long
Shadow,” Washington Post, December 15, 2007, C1.
370
See Appendix A.
168
canon open.
Christians also break with Mormons over the faith’s central text, The
Book of Mormon, which is said to be a testimony of Christ’s work in the
ancient Americas. Mormons believe the text was translated by church
founder Joseph Smith from a set a gold plates found buried near Palmyra,
N.Y., where the church was founded in 1830.
Smith’s translated Book of Mormon formed the foundation for
what Mormons call the “restored” church as intended by God.371
It should also be noted that some reporting on Mormonism provided in-depth
information, placing doctrines in the context of how they change the lives of believers. A
front-page Washington Post article that ran about two weeks before Romney’s “Faith in
America” speech described the church and its growth in Nigeria, as well as details of the
church’s uses of technology in spreading its message. The article included discussions of
many Mormon programs and doctrines that members believed helped their lives. It
described a Mormon meeting where members stood up in turn and described their
experiences with the faith:
[Joshua Matthews] Ebiloma nodded and smiled as fellow
Mormons told their stories. One woman described the joy of having her
family sealed, a ritual that Mormons believe helps families stay together
beyond death. Another said tithing – the Mormon practice of giving onetenth of their income to the church – “would bring great blessings to the
church.”
A third woman praised Gordon B. Hinckley, the 97-year-old
church president in Salt Lake City, who followers believe receives
revelation. “I know President Hinckley is the living prophet,” she said.372
In short, many foundational dimensions of Mormonism, at least as this study
defined them, were included in the coverage.
371
Jennifer Dobner, “Eyring Remembers predecessor kindly during LDS conference,”
Associated Press, October 7, 2007.
372
Mary Jordan, “The New Face of Global Mormonism; Tech-savvy Missionary Church
Thrives as Far Afield as Africa,” Washington Post, November 19, 2007, A1.
169
The coverage of the Romney campaign also raised interesting observations about
the “model minority discourse.” According to the discourse, model characteristics of a
minority are those most acceptable to and in sync with the surrounding society’s
traditional values.373 In the case of Mormons, such “model” characteristics include focus
on the family, hard work, capitalism tempered by compassion for the needy, and other
ideals. According to the model minority concept, the attention the news media and other
outside observers focus on a minority group’s model characteristics serves to bolster
some conservative status quo. At the same time, other portions of the discourse keep the
minority at arms length, not fully assimilated, as when reporters focus on things like
polygamy, Christ returning to Missouri or Mormon underwear.374
The present study demonstrates that Mormonism’s idiosyncrasies were very much
on display in the news coverage of Romney’s campaign, while traits that may have
“normalized” Mormons were harder to find. It appears that the model minority discourse
supposedly so prevalent in the framing of Mormonism before the Romney campaign,
faded during the campaign. The ideological purposes that a model minority discourse
would supposedly serve didn’t apply to the Romney coverage.
Mormonism presented challenges to journalists because the horse-race coverage
led to an emphasis on the out-of-the-mainstream elements of Mormon belief because of a
need to explain the reason for Romney’s struggles in the horse race and in the polls.
Framing theory suggests that these unfavorable portrayals might have activated latent,
unfavorable schema about Mormonism in readers. One example that merits a little
further discussion is that Mormonism co-existed with the word “cult” in about a quarter
373
Chen and Yorgason, “Those Amazing Mormons.”
374
Ibid.
170
of the stories. Reporters weren’t saying, “Mormonism is a cult.” Rather, they chose
shorthand explanations as to why some fundamentalists and evangelicals dislike
Mormonism, as in, “some evangelicals think Mormonism is a cult.” Framing theory
suggests that the word “cult” can activate stored mental schema in readers about cults by
mentioning the word or by mentioning words that convey a cult-like image to readers,
regardless of the context. If readers hold the mental schema that cult groups hold unusual
beliefs, then mentioning Mormonism’s belief about the believed second coming of Jesus
Christ in Missouri, its history of polygamy or its supposed secrecy might activate the idea
that Mormons are members of a cult whether or not the word “cult” was ever used in the
discussion. It is likely that journalistic portrayals and frames activated schema that helped
readers see Mormonism as a cult.
What to make of the fact that opinion coverage was less favorable in general than
harder news coverage towards Mormonism? Opinion journalists were largely doing their
job. Writers such as Maureen Dowd made impassioned, even mocking, arguments that
made Mormonism appear in unfavorable ways.375 Though opinion journalists shouldn’t
deliberately distort facts any more than hard news journalists should, writing with passion
and persuasiveness are the marks of good opinion journalism. Perhaps Mormonism
incited powerful passions that are evident in the sampled coverage and in the opinion
writing. It should be noted that some of the most favorable coverage of Mormonism
375
Maureen Dowd, “Mitt’s No J.F.K.,” New York Times, December 9, 2007, 11. Among
Dowd’s comments: “When I was a kid, we used to drive on the Beltway past the big
Mormon temple outside Washington. The spires rose up like a white Oz, and some wag
had spray-painted the message on a bridge beneath: ‘Surrender Dorothy!’ It did seem like
an alien world, an impression that was enhanced when we took a tour of the temple and
saw all the women wearing white outfits and light pink lipstick.”
171
appeared in opinion pieces. Columns by David Broder and Naomi Schaeffer Riley
portrayed Mormonism favorably.376
Especially striking is how much more frequently news reporters framed
Romney’s campaign as suffering setbacks. This suggests the idea that news reporters
were more highly preoccupied with the horse race than were opinion journalists. The hard
news journalists might also be criticized because they were less detailed in their
portrayals of Mormonism overall, including fewer dimensions of the faith in their
coverage.
5.5 The Kennedy analogy.
This study shows that news media often relied on an analogy between candidate
John F. Kennedy’s “Catholic problem” in the 1960 presidential campaign and Mitt
Romney’s “Mormon problem” in 2008. Was this analogy valid in helping to explain
Romney’s challenge and how it might be addressed? The Kennedy analogy fit better
than analogies to other campaigns in which religion became an issue. In Jimmy Carter’s
1976 race, the candidate’s born-again Christianity may have reinforced his claim to be a
decent, moral man, a departure from the scandal-plagued Nixon years.377 In 2000,
George W. Bush “born again” epiphany might have explained his transformation from a
dissolute drinker to a plausible candidate. In those cases, the candidate’s religion may
376
Naomi Schaeffer Riley, “What Iowans Should Know About Mormons,” Wall Street
Journal, December 7, 2007, W13; David S. Broder, “Like Father, Like Son; How the
Romneys Tackled the Question of Faith,” Washington Post, December 9, 2007, B7.
377
Religion, media and the Carter campaign are worthy of another study. As is shown in
Appendix H, religion might have been framed as an issue to be overcome – especially his
sister’s mystical conversion experiences – in ways similar to how Romney’s religion was
framed. His speech on the Jewish issue might have been a larger story than it was.
172
have well helped them win, whereas Kennedy’s Catholicism and Romney’s Mormonism
are viewed as clear handicaps.
Furthermore, analogies comparing Romney to Pat Robertson, Morris Udall, Orrin
Hatch and Al Smith could be inappropriate because these candidates lost in part as a
result of religion. Such analogies could therefore delegitimize Romney’s chances. So the
John F. Kennedy analogy seems the best fit, at least up to a point. Romney’s religion,
like Kennedy’s, was a political disadvantage to overcome – a point that Romney himself
advanced. Romney established this frame himself by telling reporters he might someday
give a “JFK speech” during the 2008 campaign.378 This narrative suggested that
Romney’s campaign, like Kennedy’s, was a test of religious tolerance and that a Romney
victory would help put one more prejudice to rest.
The analogy, however, was complicated and not perfectly suited to Romney’s
election. To begin with, Kennedy’s speech was delivered after his nomination. At that
point in the campaign, Kennedy needed to send his message to a diverse general
electorate. Romney, in contrast, gave his speech before any of the 2008 primaries and
caucuses. Romney spoke at the start of the Republican nominating process in which the
influence of evangelical Christians has risen dramatically over the last three decades.379
Many evangelicals viewed Mormonism with suspicion. In short, a major bloc of
378
Glen Johnson, “Romney says he will address his religion if he goes national,”
Associated Press, May 3, 2006. As Appendix F shows, comparing Romney to JFK was a
large part of how Romney’s religion played out in his 1994 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
379
Jessica Rettig, “The Religious Ties of the Republican Party. How the GOP aligned
with the evangelicals,” U.S. News & World Report, December 2, 2010, under politics
accessed at http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/12/02/the-religious-ties-of-therepublican-party, Accessed July 27, 2011.
173
Republican voters and activists were inclined to distrust Romney at the outset, which
made it difficult for Romney to put the religion issue behind him, speech or no speech.
Pushing the faulty JFK analogy, the news media exaggerated what Romney’s
address might accomplish. When the Mormon issue resurfaced after the speech, showing
Romney had not put the Mormon issue behind him, analogies to JFK all but disappeared
from the coverage. The Kennedy analogy had produced a muddled, confusing narrative.
One has to ask whether the secular press’s ignorance regarding the depth of theological
differences within the GOP contributed to such heavy employment of the JFK-Romney
analogy.
The Kennedy analogy deserves one more point of discussion. Coverage of the
evangelical opposition to Romney echoes the Kennedy story. Evangelicals like Norman
Vincent Peale were often seen as the primary antagonists to Kennedy during the 1960
campaign.380 The Romney narrative again put evangelicals in the antagonistic role, even
as many evangelical leaders worked hard to show great deference and respect toward
Romney, some even endorsing him.381 Though this study didn’t specifically address the
treatment of evangelical Christians with any level of granular detail, study texts suggest
evangelical Christians may have come off looking worse than Mormons in the overall
coverage – as disrespectful bigots in their relationship to others, reinforcing a stereotype
the literature says exists.382 Given that news focus on Republican voters (of which
380
See Appendix H.
381
As Appendix H makes clear, there were other groups besides white evangelicals
opposed to Kennedy but the news media portrayed white evangelicals as the leading
group opposing Kennedy, the analysis seems to show.
382
Bolce and De Maio, “A Prejudice for the Thinking Classes: Media Exposure, Political
Sophistication, and the Anti-Christian Fundamentalist.”
174
evangelical voters make up a large percentage), it was perhaps natural to focus on
Christian opposition to Romney. But in so doing, journalists seem to have reported far
less often on secular liberals who also expressed opposition to the idea of a Mormon
president, according to Gallup.383
5.6 How this Study Applies to Candidates from Minority Religions.
Mormonism presents a special case in the study of politicians and reporters in
campaigns; however, the lessons of this study appear to apply to candidates from other
minority religions because of journalistic norms highlighted by study data. One goal of
this study was to examine how a minority religion of any candidate might be covered, not
just Mormonism. It is worth pondering whether Mormonism is a special case, however.
Do the lessons of the campaign really apply to other minority or idiosyncratic religions?
Do they apply to atheists?
One argument is that Mormonism may, in fact, be unique. Mormon scholar Terryl
Givens suggests that Joseph Smith’s central heresy is that he mixes the sacred and secular
and makes God understandable.384 Givens quotes a line from James Gordon Bennett to
illustrate the point:
383
Liberals were more willing than conservatives to vote for a Mormon, but considerable
reluctance was still expressed among them. According to Gallup in February 2007, 75
percent of liberals, 77 percent of moderates and 66 percent of conservatives expressed a
willingness to vote for a Mormon. See Jeffrey M. Jones, “Some Americans reluctant to
vote for Mormon, 72-year-old candidate. Strong support for black, woman, Catholic
candidate,” Gallup News Service, February 27, 2007, at
http://www.gallup.com/poll/26611/Some-Americans-Reluctant-Vote-Mormon72YearOld-Presidential-Candidates.aspx, accessed March 23, 2011.
384
Terryl Givens, People of Paradox, (London: Oxford, 2007), 38-51.
175
Jo goes on prophecying, preaching and building the temple as if
nothing had happened. They are busy all the time establishing factories to
make saints and crockery, also prophets and white paint.385
Givens’ point is that Mormonism doesn’t really fit on either side of the religioussecular culture war. However important Givens’ argument may be to Mormons wishing
to understand their long history of persecution and challenges in American democracy,
his argument may take this study away from the concrete lessons of the Romney
campaign. If Mormonism is a uniquely, irreducible theological and secular heresy, then
there is nothing that can be learned from the Romney campaign as a case study that
would be applicable to other candidates’ religions or even to religious coverage in the
American press. The argument places the Mormon faith outside useful discussion except
about Mormonism. Such potential implications must be acknowledged. Mormonism may
have few correlates.
However, journalism is a concrete profession with established norms that include
fair portrayals, accuracy and avoidance of stereotypes. Its norms also provide for a
public forum for dialogue.386 As such, there remain many lessons that can be learned
from the Romney coverage because journalistic norms assume Mormonism shouldn’t be
treated differently than any other religious group.
Judging by the Romney coverage, candidates from minority faiths or atheistic
candidates will likely face a secular media that will likely focus on the idiosyncrasies that
385
James Gordon Bennett, New York Herald, August 4, 1842, as cited in Terryl Givens,
“‘This Great Modern Abomination:’ Orthodoxy and Heresy in American Religion,” in
Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to An American World Religion, edited by
Eric A. Eliason, 99-122. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001), 114.
386
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism. What Newspeople
Should Know and What the Public Should Expect, (New York:Crown Publishing 2000)
131-146.
176
highlight details to make their beliefs unusual to others. Nothing in the coverage suggests
that any specifics of a religion will be avoided. These candidates will likely face
journalists who fail to place beliefs in a context that shows how a faith might rationally
inform policy; nor will many secular journalists always understand the candidates’
religious culture. A candidate’s effort to remain silent about the dynamics of his or her
faith, however well intentioned, may result in further questions. Public perceptions of the
“unusual” religion will likely be discussed at length.
The historical record provides few answers about the best way minority
candidates should deal with religious questions. History shows the press will discuss
religious issues in a campaign. Al Smith’s efforts to minimize his Catholicism did little
to resolve the issue.387 In contrast, it seems that John Kennedy’s efforts to speak about
his faith routinely over the campaign may be part of the solution. But candidates more
traditionally devout than Kennedy might find a pure statement of separation (as he gave
in Houston) to be inconsistent with their personal beliefs. The model for election set by
Kennedy’s deeply secular speeches in 1960, therefore, may have rhetorically boxed in
Mitt Romney.388
In contrast with his father, Mitt Romney approached religion far differently. George
Romney made Mormonism integral to his public persona by visiting Mormon churches as
he campaigned and through regular discussions of his Mormon beliefs, while Mitt
Romney chose to avoid discussions of his Mormon faith. In doing so, Mitt Romney
avoided some of the pitfalls that hindered his father’s campaign over religious issues. At
387
Hostetler, “Gov. Al Smith Confronts the Catholic Question.”
388
See Appendix H for greater detail on historical campaign where religion was involved.
See Appendix I for greater detail about Mormons who ran for president.
177
the same time, Mitt Romney created other problems for himself by appearing evasive.
It is unclear, therefore, the degree to which Mitt Romney’s choices worked. He
lost his long bid for the 2008 nomination, but he was the most successful Mormon
candidate of all time and has been seen as a frontrunner for the 2012 campaign. The
opposition to Mormonism is genuine among certain conservative voters. There may have
been nothing Romney could have done to improve his chances as a Mormon candidate.
The same may be true of atheists or Muslims or scientologists or others who might run
for office. The idea of finding a third way for candidates of minority religions –
something that develops a language that ties the narrow religious beliefs and history of a
candidate into the traditional religious values of the United States – seems largely
unexplored in the literature of political campaigns and is worthy of more study. Research
in this area is strongly recommended to future candidates.
Journalists are sure to face a challenge similar to Mitt Romney’s campaign in the
future. The faiths of those candidates are likely to be important as indications of the
character of a candidate. Avoiding the subject of religion and politics altogether, even in
the interest of some ephemeral public religion, is unrealistic. Faith influences whom
voters will support, so ignoring religion in campaign coverage is not an option.
But the idea of a public religion – one that rejects undue focus on irreducible
differences among religions while focusing on a few shared concepts – should not be
underestimated either. Though it really isn’t a reporter’s job to think of the public religion
and its influence on democracy, it is unrealistic to think that continuously enhancing
differences among religions and highlighting their conflicts would have no detrimental
influences on democracy and on religious diversity in the United States.
178
5.7 Suggestions for Further Research.
Numerous potential research projects could emerge from this study.
First, other texts from the 2008 campaign provide study options. How were
evangelicals framed in 2008? A content analysis of the coverage of evangelical and other
Christian faiths during the 2008 election season seems in order. Another avenue of study
would be through interviews with journalists who covered Romney’s campaign about
why certain decisions were made about their coverage of religion. A third idea would be
to examine the coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, providing careful analysis that
contrasts Romney’s religion with Barack Obama’s religion, which could provide new
insight into cultural differences, given that Wright’s ideas are perceived as more
religiously liberal than Romney’s Mormonism is. Finally, given that atheists are seen as
nearly as unpopular as scientologists as likely presidential candidates, a study of the
coverage of atheism – and of atheists – seems a good possibility for immediate study.389
The 2012 campaign will provide wonderful opportunities to compare coverage
with 2008. Is the coverage of Romney or his faith more favorable than 2008? How did
the coverage of the Mormonism of two Mormon candidates in 2012 differ?
Clearly, the relationship between horse-race coverage and the portrayal of
minority religions and minority ideas or groups deserves further thought. Do these
groups, religions or ideas become framed in ways that make them appear out of the
mainstream as is suggested happened during the 2008 campaign? Did a sort of anti-
389
One particular study worth doing is a framing analysis of the coverage of Pete Stark’s
atheism, as he is the first open atheist serving in Congress. Stark’s “coming out” was a
news story during the Romney campaign. Was Stark shown as mainstream or not?
179
bandwagon effect take over among voters as they began to see Romney as unelectable
because of his Mormonism?
The MIT study and the preliminary work at Vanderbilt that suggested powerful
heuristics in play in voter’s choice of candidates deserve more study.390 Research could
link media coverage experimentally to campaign choices and effects. For example,
Romney’s flip-flopping might be investigated experimentally for links to secretiveness
and to “Mormonness” in voting decisions by using the techniques proposed by the MIT
study of Berensky and Mendelberg.
A powerful study would be to use depth interviewing with candidates and
politicians to discuss how to handle religious questions publicly. A historical approach
using notes, memos and internal conversations from the various campaigns – especially
the Romney campaign – could provide useful insight into political communication and of
how best to deal with religion in a campaign.
A series of framing effects studies could be undertaken among media audiences as
a result of this study. Did mentions of Mormon beliefs such as polygamy activate the
idea that Mormonism is a cult in the eyes of reporters and voters? What schema were
activated about Mormonism in the coverage? About religion?
Another area of research might be to expand upon the newly emerging field of
Mormon media studies: First, two episodic content analyses about other Mormon stories
of 2008 – the coverage of the debate over Proposition 8 in California and the polygamy
raid in Texas, seem worth pursuing. A related approach would be to look to see if
390
Benson, Geer, and Merolla, “Using Cover Issues to Express Bias in the 2008
Presidential Campaign,” and Berensky and Mendelberg, “The Indirect Effects of
Discredited Stereotypes in Judgments of Jewish Leaders.”
180
Mormon coverage becomes more darkly stereotypical in the months and years following
the Romney campaign. To what degree has Mormon coverage changed? This
dissertation established that, at its worst, Romney’s framing harkened to some old
stereotypes. Was this darkness largely, therefore, a response to how Romney chose to
run his campaign or something more in the secular culture of journalism portending a
trend of worsening portrayals of Mormons? Another Mormon media study would be to
look at the coverage of Mormon missionaries in the 21st century, perhaps using Romney
and the coverage of Mormonism’s role in the Proposition 8 coverage as a way to
investigate how Mormon coverage changed.391 Given the popularity of the “Book of
Mormon Musical” on Broadway, a detailed analysis of the coverage of that play is in
order.
An obvious study that needs pursuing in Mormon media studies is a series of four
studies, histories of the four 1852 Mormon newspapers, published with the intent to
protect the Mormon faith from attacks against polygamy. The stories are part of existing
biographies, but as far as can be ascertained, none have ever been the subject of
individual studies. John Taylor’s The Mormon needs especial attention. To what degree
did he draw the attention of the main newspapers of the time? How did his work
influence the coverage in the New York Sun or the New York Tribune or the New York
Herald? What challenges did he overcome? What was the debate in Salt Lake City that
led to the decision to send four powerful leaders to major cities to write about
Mormonism while many challenges faced Mormons at home?
391
In preparation for this study, I read numerous Mormon missionary articles and came
away feeling most were favorable. Is that so? Still? What kinds of stories were there?
See Appendices G and H.
181
The coverage of the Book of Mormon itself has never been the subject of a media
study. What elements of Mormonism’s central text have made it into the public
consciousness? What is the public perception of the book? Indeed, as far as can be
ascertained, no such studies have ever been done on any scriptural texts, such as the Holy
Q’uran or The Book of Mormon or the Tao Te Ching. This is odd given these holy
book’s long influence on culture.
Updates to the studies of how frequently religious doctrine is used in daily stories
about religion seems to be in order. These studies might look at extreme events, such as
reported doctrinal influence in the coverage of suicide bombing or in more general
events, such as campaigns. But it could also look at doctrine in the news and in the news
business more holistically and normatively. What kinds of doctrines are covered? Which
religious receive the most doctrinal coverage? Is a central assertion of this dissertation
supported more broadly – that religious belief is rarely discussed in the context of how it
might influence public policy?
This study was old-fashioned in that it relied upon old media for its stories. New
media and blogging need to be included in future studies. Relying on methods employed
by such groups as Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism New Media story tracking
would be a good way. A simple question such as which religious story dominated new
media could provide a useful research agenda. As far as can be ascertained, very few
studies, if any, have been done on the Mormon image online, even as online interactions
about Mormonism are growing and the Mormon presence online is growing.
182
Furthermore, the Dart study and writers including Tom Kunkel have argued that
journalism was improving in its coverage of religion.392 In an era of cutbacks and a
continuing culture war, is this still so? Developing a framework to track that issue would
be worthwhile.
Much more needs to be written about silence and paradox in the interaction of
religion and media – indeed, within media and the modern culture generally. John
Durham Peters stab at that with Speaking Into the Air is a powerful first step.393
Interviews of journalists about how and why they keep silent about some religious issues
and how they deal with paradox seems worth pursuing. That journalism’s cultural
disdain for secrecy may create a blind-spot in the coverage of religion and of minority
religious cultures needs review. The dilemma of silence could be a powerful intellectual
fulcrum to evaluate media choices and influences.
These studies could elevate the profession, enhance its training and strengthen
America’s electoral processes.
5.8 Conclusion
In the 2008 campaign, the news media gave Mitt Romney a fractured frame, as a
mainstream outsider. As he tries to run again, news media should look for ways to
improve coverage. They should look at how religion shapes ideologies. They should try
to avoid distortion or sensational coverage that makes a religion appear more out of the
mainstream than it is.
392
Kunkel, “Have a Little Faith: At last the Mainstream Media Get Religion;” Dart and
Allen, Bridging the Gap: Religion and the News Media.
393
Peters, Speaking into the Air.
183
The coverage of Mitt Romney and his Mormonism is a cautionary tale. The
studied coverage suggests minority religions will be portrayed as out of the mainstream
and their beliefs will be discussed at length. The coverage provides a cautionary tale for
journalists because the Romney story shows how difficult covering the mix of religion
and politics can be. The culture of journalism can conflict with the culture of religion.
To cover religion and politics in the future, and to do it well, will take thoughtfulness.
Only the broad application of good judgment will bridge the divide between these two
important forces in public life.
The present study tells a cautionary tale for democracy because it shows the press
will continue to focus on conflict and on horseraces at a time when the need for excellent
political reporting has never been greater. In an era of weakened party structures, the
viability of candidates will continue to be evaluated by journalists. In a world of tight
election seasons, the role of the press as gatekeeper seems sure to grow. Americans will
have fewer and fewer chances to see candidates up close and will rely on media images
and texts to make their choices. Judging from the coverage of Mitt Romney and his
Mormonism in the 2008 campaign, work still needs to be done in preparing the press to
cover complex issues where religion and politics intersect.
Finally, to the degree that religion and media square off in America’s culture war,
it is time to move beyond the disputes, to move closer together toward the goal of a better
nation. The American theologian Jurgen Niebuhr once said:
I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists
could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with
184
the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the
truth.394
Founders of modern media like James Gordon Bennett sometimes saw their
profession in almost religious terms, as a hinge point for all. 395 Many contemporary
reporters talk of the “calling” of journalism, as though they are missionaries heading to a
far country. Conceptions media professionals hold of themselves – bringing people
together in a global village, for example – are religious in structure. Journalism
philosopher Jay Rosen has written that journalism itself can be seen as a religion. It has
creeds, high priests, priesthoods, orthodoxy and schools of theology – and even, as in
these dark economic times, crises of faith.396
Perhaps there has been a crisis of faith, where there remains a divide between
religion and the news media. This divide needs bridging to better accommodate
democracy and presidential elections. This divide will require care and good judgment to
bridge. Part of this good judgment may arise from an understanding of the shared value
of the First Amendment and will require mutual understanding and respect and less
cynicism. Newsweek’s Jon Meacham wrote,
The acts of reading, of contemplation and discovery, of writing
poems and finding cures and composing symphonies are, for the religious,
acts of piety and of thanksgiving, for the secular, such things may be about
394
Jurgen Niebuhr, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic. (Cleveland:Meridian,
1957), 105, at the Internet Archive,
http://www.archive.org/stream/leavesfromthenot003966mbp/leavesfromthenot003966mb
p_djvu.txt. , accessed February 16, 2010.
395
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, 23-25.
396
Jay Rosen, “Journalism is itself a religion: Special Essay on the launch of the
revealer,” PressThink, January 7, 2004, at
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/01/07/press_religion.html,
accessed March 19, 2010.
185
the wonders of nature or of rationality or of logic. So be it: the point is
that we are all on the same odyssey, if for different reasons. In either case,
the story is about moving forward, through the darkness, searching for
light. Or at least it should be. Extremes make the journey more
perilous.397
The Mormon scholar Richard Bushman told reporters at his Pew forum during the
Romney campaign:
Our finest political rhetoric has appealed to this grand corporate
dream of America as a goodly nation. It was Kennedy’s gift to speak in
that voice; to a lesser extent it was Reagan’s. … The French dream of
grandeur, we’re always saying. Americans dream of righteousness and
being a good nation.398
Believers and journalists – even when they aren’t the same thing – should
remember they share the same cause – of preserving the American dream of being a great
and good nation. They should remember that cause endures, especially in troubled times.
Religion and media share a fundamental mission to lift up the hands that hang down and
to let the oppressed go free.399
397
Meacham, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation,
18.
398
Pew forum, “Mormonism and Politics. Are they compatible?”
399
Hebrews 12:12; Isaiah 58:6.
186
Appendix A: Code Book
Important notes:
1. In all of your counting – make sure you focus only on the article, its headline and
captions to photos and graphics.
Many of these electronic .pdfs, especially those from Proquest, also have indexes or
abstracts that may have these same terms or concepts for which you are searching. Do
NOT count if the words or concepts are in these abstracts or index words.
Count only if in the headline, story text or caption.
2. In all of your counting, make no distinction between whether the writer makes a
statement or whether someone the writer is quoting or paraphrases makes the statement.
Count them either way.
V00 – V06 These seven variables have been pre-entered for you.
General Instructions.
Please enter data into an Excel spreadsheet called Romney evaluation about the articles in
the files.
Do each article one at a time, for the variables as described. Put the information in the
corresponding column in the spreadsheet based upon your evaluation of each article.
V00: OVERALL Number. Number the article – consecutively. If the last article was 1,
then enter 2.
V01: Number. Number the article – consecutively FOR EACH SOURCE. If the last
article was 1, then put in number 2. IF this is the first article of a source, enter 1.
V02: Source. Enter a number for the source of the article as follows:
1 – AP
2 – Newsweek
3 – New York Times
4 – Washington Post
5 – Time
6 – Wall Street Journal
7 – Chicago Tribune
8 –Los Angeles Times
V03: Source Type. Enter the following for each source depending on which specific
source it is:
187
National Paper:
New York Times
Washington Post
Wall Street Journal
Regional Paper:
Los Angeles Times
Chicago Tribune
Wire Service:
AP
National Magazine
Time
Newsweek
V04: Headline. Write the Headline of the article into variable 04.
V05: Date. Enter the date in day-month-year format. For example, 06-Dec-2007
V06: Words. Put the number of words in the article. Use the word count as listed on
either the Lexis-Nexis or Proquest .pdf of the article.
V07: Romney in the lead paragraph. Is Mitt Romney mentioned by name in the lead –
first -- paragraph of the article? If Mitt Romney is mentioned in the lead paragraph of the
article, then enter 1 for this variable. If not, enter 0.
V08: Romney in the headline. Is Mitt Romney – or Romney only – mentioned in the
headline or subheadline of the article? If so, enter 1 for this variable. If not, enter 0.
V09. Total number of mentions of Mitt Romney by name in the body of article, in a
graphic caption or photo caption.
Count the number of times Mitt Romney is mentioned it if the article uses either the full
name – Mitt Romney – or his last name – Romney. Do not count if it uses some sort of
common noun description of Romney (such as “the candidate” or “the former
Massachusetts governor” or even Mitt alone.) Not in the headline
Also:
• It is appropriate to use word-search functions in whatever electronic viewer you use to
read the article.
• Be careful that Romney, when used, refers to Mitt Romney not to some member of his
family, such as his brother Scott or his father, George, or his wife or children.
188
• Do NOT count any mentions of Romney from within Proquest’s abstract, if the article
was downloaded from Proquest.
• Do NOT count if it comes at the end of the article in the cataloging and indexing
information.
V10: Does the article say Romney is Succeeding? Count the number of sentences with
‘Romney is ahead’ mentions. Count only if these sentences say he is ahead in a candidate
preference poll, (either in one state or nationwide) or is ahead in the nomination delegate
count, or if someone is quoted or paraphrased saying explicitly (not merely implying)
that he is ahead, or is the nomination frontrunner, or that he is likely to win the
presidential nomination or has won a primary election or state delegate selection caucus
or straw poll or is likely to do so.
A sentence is the unit of analysis. That is, one sentence may not have more than one
assertion that Romney is ahead.
V11: Does the article say Romney is suffering setbacks or is not succeeding. Count
only if the sentence says he is behind in a candidate preference poll, (either in one state or
nationwide) or is behind in the nomination delegate count, or if someone is quoted or
paraphrased in an article saying explicitly (not merely implying) that he is behind or that
someone else is the frontrunner or that Romney is likely to lose the nomination. Also
count if he has lost a nominating caucus, primary or straw poll.
Do NOT count if a poll cited mentions that Mitt Romney faces trouble because of his
Mormonism.
A sentence is the unit of analysis. That is, one sentence may not have more than one
assertion that Romney is behind.
V12 – V18:
Dimensions helping Romney to get elected. On each of these seven variables put a 1 or
a 0: 1 for “yes” and 0 for “no.” Each variable is a yes/no question. Make sure that the
article frames the dimension as a positive thing, as something helping his chances. You
may answer yes or no, 1 or 0, on any, none or all of the variable dimensions.
Assertions may come from the article’s author or from anyone the article chooses to
quote or to paraphrase -- from experts to “regular” voters.
Some of these dimensions are not mutually exclusive dimensions. That is, Romney’s
religion, for example, may be described within an article as both a help and a hindrance.
You would enter 1 on both of those variables.
189
V12: Helps Dimension 1: Romney’s morals and values. If the article says that
Romney’s values and morals will help him get elected, enter 1. If it doesn’t mention his
values or morals OR says those morals and values are a hindrance to his chances, enter 0.
Specific descriptions of his values for which you would also answer a 1 include:
• That he shares personal morals or values with non-Mormon Americans, including those
from other denominations or religions.
• That he never or rarely swears, never drinks or smokes and/or is “clean-living.”
• That he works hard and is determined.
• That he gives more than 10 percent to charity or to his church or is kind to others.
V13: Helps Dimension 2: Romney’s experience, personality and intellect. If the
article says that Romney’s experience, personality and intellect will help him get elected,
enter 1. If it doesn’t mention his intellect, personality or experience OR the articles says
his intellect and experience are hindrances, enter 0.
In this case, it isn’t enough if his experience is ONLY used as part of his title – as in
Gov. Romney or Massachusetts Governor Romney. It must include some description of
his work as governor.
Specific experience for which you would also answer a 1 include:
• His work on the 2002 Olympics.
• His work as Massachusetts governor.
• His work as an investment banker and venture capitalist.
• His record at Harvard.
• His skill at learning quickly, mastering data.
• His determination and persistence.
V14: Helps Dimension 3: Romney’s religion. If the article says that Romney’s religion
will help him get elected, enter 1. If it says his religion is a hindrance, enter 0.
Specific values for which you would also answer a 1 may include:
• That Mormons will vote for him.
• That Mormons will give him money.
• That there is a backlash against Mormon bigotry.
• That Mormons have conservative values, similar to Republican voters.
V15: Helps Dimension 4: Romney’s looks. If the article says that Romney is
handsome, photogenic, or looks presidential, enter 1. If it doesn’t mention his looks or
says those looks are a hindrance, enter 0.
Specific values for which you would answer a 1 include:
190
• His hair.
• His face.
• His actor-like, even presidential, appearance.
• His trim figure and athletic build.
V16: Helps Dimension 5: Romney’s campaign organization and strategy.
If the article says that Romney’s campaign organization and strategy will help him get
elected, enter 1. If it doesn’t mention these in any way or says his organization or
strategy are hurting his campaign, enter 0.
Elements of campaign organization and strategy may include:
•
•
•
•
Fund-raising or endorsement success.
Wise spending of campaign funds.
Effective campaign staff.
Specific strategic and tactical decisions that helped campaign.
V17: Helps Dimension 6. Romney’s position on the issues. If the article says that
Romney’s issue positions might help him – positions such as abortion, gay marriage,
family, immigration, taxes, or health care or the war on terror will help him get elected,
enter 1. If it doesn’t mention these or says his issue positions hurt him, enter 0.
V18: Helps Dimension 7. Romney’s family.
If the article says that Romney’s family might help him get elected, enter 1. If it doesn’t
mention his family or that his family might hurt him, enter 0.
Some dimensions of his family might include:
• His close relationship with his deceased, admirable father.
• His talented, attractive wife.
• His appealing sons.
• The length and success of his marriage.
V19 – V24:
Dimensions hindering Romney’s election chances.
On each of these variables put a 1 or a 0, 1 for “yes” and 0 for “no.” Each variable is a
yes/no question. Make sure that the article frames the dimension as a negative thing, as a
hindrance. You may answer yes or no on any, none or all of the questions.
Assertions may come from the article’s author or from those quoted or paraphrased -from experts to “regular” voters.
191
Some of these dimensions are not mutually exclusive to helps dimensions. That is,
Romney’s religion, for example, may be described within an article as both a help and a
hindrance. You would enter 1 on both of those dimensions.
V19: Hinders Dimension 1: his religion.
Enter 1 if the article says Mormonism will hinder or does hinder Romney’s chances.
Make no distinction between whether there is something about Mormonism itself that is
Romney’s problem or opposition from secular or religious people to his faith that is his
problem.
If an article cites a poll that says Mormonism is a problem for Romney, enter 1.
Enter 0 if it only says Romney’s religion will help him or if it doesn’t assess the degree to
which his religion is a problem or not in getting elected.
V20: Hinders Dimension 2: Romney’s changing opinions on issues. If the article talks
about Romney’s positions changing on issues, including but not limited to abortion and
gay rights, then put in 1. If it doesn’t, put in 0. Put in 0 if his changing position on issues
is seen exclusively as a good thing.
V21: Hinders Dimension 3: Romney’s personality. If Romney’s personality is framed
as something that hinders his chances enter 1. If not, enter 0.
Alleged traits that could hinder him include:
• He is aloof.
ª He is “too good to be true.”
• He isn’t a regular guy. He is plastic or robotic.
• He is calculating, insincere.
. He is ruthless or greedy, for instance in business practices.
If any of these descriptions of his personality or other negative traits are included, or
something similar, enter 1. Otherwise, enter 0.
V22: Hinders Dimension 4: Romney’s wealth or social status. If the article says that
Romney’s wealth or social status is a hindrance, then enter 1.
If not, enter 0.
V23: Hinders Dimension 5: Romney’s campaign and strategy. If the article says that
Romney’s campaign organization and strategy hinder his election enter 1. If it doesn’t
mention these, enter 0.
192
Elements or campaign organization and strategy include:
• Fund-raising shortcomings.
• unwise spending of campaign funds.
• ineffective campaign staff.
. Bad strategic or tactical decisions.
V24-V25: Likert scale evaluations.
For the following two variables, use the one-to-five Likert scale in evaluating how the
article reports on or characterizes Mormonism’s place in the mainstream and Romney’s
place in the mainstream. In your evaluation, include characterizations of Mormonism
quoted or summarized in the article, even if the writer does not endorse them.
One is the lowest – furthest from the mainstream -- and five is the highest – emblematic
of the mainstream.
V24: Mormonism is part of the American religious mainstream.
Use the l-to-5 Likert scale to measure to extent to which the article characterizes
Romney’s religion as part of the American religious mainstream.
Include characterizations of Mormonism quoted or summarized in the article, even if the
writer does not endorse them.
Enter the number that best captures the portrayal of Romney’s religion:
1: Far out of the mainstream – Mormonism is portrayed or described as cult-like,
potentially dangerous or extreme.
2: Somewhat out of the Mainstream – Mormonism is portrayed or described as
somewhat out of the mainstream, as weird or idiosyncratic in its beliefs, practices and
culture.
3: Neither in the mainstream nor really out of it – Mormonism is portrayed in a neutral
way, neither in the mainstream nor out of it.
4: Somewhat to mostly in the mainstream – Mormonism is portrayed as somewhat within
the mainstream to mostly mainstream in its beliefs. It is largely assimilated into
American religious thought, even though it has some differences.
5: Fully in the mainstream – Mormonism is portrayed as fully assimilated and fully in
the American mainstream of religious thought. It is emblematic of American religious
thought and values.
V25: Romney’s views are part of the American political mainstream.
Use the l-to-5 Likert scale to measure to extent to which the article characterizes
Romney’s positions on policy/campaign issues as part of the American political
mainstream.
In your assessment include relevant characterizations of Romney that are quoted or
summarized in the article, even if the writer does not endorse them.
193
EXCLUDE characterizations of Mormon religious doctrines
Enter 1 to 5, as follows:
1: Far out of the political mainstream – Romney’s views on policy/ campaign issues are
portrayed as being far outside the political mainstream.
2: Somewhat out of the political mainstream – Romney’s views on policy/ campaign
issues are portrayed as being somewhat out of the mainstream.
3: Views on policy/campaign issues not characterized regarding political mainstream. –
Article does not say whether Romney’s views on policy/campaign issues are inside or
outside the political mainstream.
4: Somewhat to mostly in the political mainstream – Romney’s views on policy/
campaign issues are portrayed as being somewhat to mostly in the political mainstream.
5: Fully in the mainstream – Romney’s views on policy/campaign issues are portrayed as
being fully in the mainstream.
V26 – V39: Mormon Dimensions.
In each of these 10 variables, enter 1 for yes and 0 for no. If the dimension discussed in
the variable is mentioned in the article, enter 1, if not, enter 0.
Only enter one 1 or one zero.
If the dimension is discussed by either the writer or someone the writer quotes, enter 1,
even if whom is quoted is contradicted by other facts or quotations.
For example, if a writer quotes someone who says Mormons practice polygamy and then
the writer says the practice ended more than 100 years ago, still enter 1.
V26: Mormon Dimension 1. Polygamy.
Enter 1 if there is any mention of polygamy or “plural marriage” in the story – including
Mormon practice of polygamy in the past and break-off groups that openly practice
polygamy in the present. Enter 1 as well if it mentions plural marriage or the HBO series
Big Love. Enter 1 if the article mentions break off groups that practice polygamy. Enter
0 if there is no mention of any of these.
V27: Mormon Dimension 2. Mormons discriminate against Women and people of
color.
Enter 1 if the article says Mormons are bigots or implies it by mentioning beliefs and
practices of the Mormon faith that suggest bigotry to many audiences.
194
For instance, enter 1 if the article mentions that Mormons do not allow women to hold
the priesthood or that Mormons did not allow men of African descent to hold the
priesthood until 1978.
Enter 1 if the article refers to the criticism that women or minorities are in a subservient
position in the culture and church.
Enter 1 if the article – or someone quoted or paraphrased in it – says Mormons are
bigots or prejudiced directly.
Otherwise, enter 0.
V28: Mormon Dimension 3. Mormons are socially conservative or believe in “cleanliving.”
Enter 1 if the article says Mormons live a “clean” or “conservative” lifestyle.
Enter 1 as well if the article mentions any of these: that Mormons (or Mitt Romney and
other Mormons in their personal habits) don’t (or aren’t supposed to) smoke, do drugs,
drink, gamble, have sex outside of marriage, don’t swear or are conservative in attire and
look.
Otherwise, enter 0.
V29: Mormon Dimension 4. Mormons are devout. Enter 1 if it describes Mormons as
devout people.
Enter 1 if any Mormon, including Romney, is described as devout.
Enter 1 if it includes any of these Mormon practices:
• They give 10 percent to their church in a tithing.
• They fast on a regular basis (giving money from the fast to the poor).
• They attend several meetings on the Sabbath where they participate as volunteer
teachers and lay leaders or don’t work on Sundays.
• They serve as volunteer missionaries.
• They attend temples, which requires certain standards of personal conduct and often
requires sacrifice and effort to attend.
• Men serve as lay priesthood leaders without pay and women volunteer for many church
positions.
V30: Mormon dimension 5. Mormons are caring people.
Enter 1 if it describes Mormons as caring people.
Enter 1 if it includes any of these Mormon practices:
195
• The church runs a perpetual education fund to help men and women members in poorer
countries get a better education.
• The church runs a determined and large welfare program for its members that can
include monthly fasting.
• The church runs a vast humanitarian program to help people not of the faith after
natural and other disasters.
• The church believes in education including direct sponsorship of three universities.
• The church has a home-teaching program.
• Members take care of one another’s needs.
• Mormon examples are shown as exhibiting caring behaviors.
Enter 0 otherwise.
V31: Mormon Dimension 6: List of Mormon beliefs.
If the article draws attention to ANY of these following beliefs or practices – but NO
OTHERS -- enter 1:
• Mormons wear unusual underwear, often called garments.
• Mormons believe men can become like God.
• Mormons may believe or do believe in something called the white horse prophecy
(where, supposedly, a Mormon on a metaphorical White Horse will ride to the defense of
the imperiled Constitution).
• Mormons believe God is corporeal – having a body.
• Mormons believe in a mother in heaven.
• Mormons believe in a pre-existence, that they lived before they were born.
• Mormons believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ will be in Missouri or at least
part of the events of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will unfold there.
• Mormons believe theirs is the one true church or seem to believe that.
• Mormons believe and practice an ordinance called baptism for dead.
• Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers – or some say that Mormons may
believe that.
• Mormons believe (or believed) in a shared, communitarian economic system (which
was called the United Order).
• Mormons believe Bible is true only insofar as it is translated correctly and that changes
were made to it.
Also Enter 1 if the article, or someone quoted in the article says Mormons are unusual (or
a strong synonym) in their beliefs or practices –
Otherwise, enter 0.
V32: Mormon Dimension 7. Second list of Mormon beliefs:
196
If the article draws attention to ANY of these following beliefs or practices – but NO
OTHERS -- enter 1:
The attention may be drawn by the author or by someone quoted or paraphrased by the
article’s author whether or not the writer endorses the views of who is quoted.
• The church’s founder was Joseph Smith.
• The Book of Mormon.
• Golden plates or Golden Tablets (these plates are the origin of the Book of Mormon.)
• Mormons believe in living prophets or call church leaders “prophet.”
• Mormons believe in on-going revelations from God.
• Mormons believe in scriptures beyond the Bible.
• Mormons believe in restoration. That is to say, the religion Jesus Christ established
drifted into apostasy and was re-established in fullness in modern times.
Otherwise, enter 0.
V33: Mormon Dimension 8: Mormons are unusually secretive, dangerous,
deceptive, or insular.
Enter 1 if the article uses any of those words – secretive, dangerous or deceptive – in any
description of Mormonism or of Mormons by the author or someone the author quotes or
paraphrases, even if the author does not endorse that characterization.
Any form of those words are used in describing Mormons or their practices, enter 1 for
this variable.
Cult-like may be an indication of this variable, but the word cult is not sufficient by itself
to enter 0.
Other possibilities:
• Mormons are unusually collaborative and vague to outsiders.
• The Mormons carried out the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
V34: Mormon Dimension 9: Mormons are quintessentially American Enter 1 if the
writer describes Mormons as patriotic in any description by the author or someone the
author quotes or paraphrases, even if the author does not endorse that characterization.
Also enter 1 if any of these factors are mentioned:
• Mormon war veterans.
‘’ Mormons or citizens of Utah have a have rate of military enlistment.
• Mormons support the U.S. Constitution and see it as divinely inspired.
• Mormons support the Boy Scouts.
• The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which sings patriotic music.
• Mormonism had its origins in the United States.
197
• Mormonism had an epic Trek to the American West.
• Enter 1 if the article says something like: “Mormonism is America’s most successful
indigenous religion.”
• Enter 1 if the article mentions successful, famous American Mormons – except the
Romneys – like Harry Reid or Steve Young or the Osmonds.
Otherwise, enter 0.
V35: Mormon Dimension 10. Mormons believe in what are often called traditional
family values. Family commitment is central to their belief.
Enter 1 if the writer – or someone the writer quotes or paraphrases Mormons as believers
in families or so-called “traditional family values.”
Enter 1 as well if the article talks about Mormon practices and beliefs that center on the
family:
• its opposition to gay marriage
• its practice of once-a-week family gatherings called Family Home Evening
• its belief that marriage is an eternal relationship and that families are “sealed” together
past death
• that Mormons believe generally in families.
Enter 1 as well if the article discusses Romney’s wife and children in ways that are
emblematic of these Mormon beliefs in family.
Otherwise, enter 0.
V36: Mormon Dimension 11. The Mormon Church is large and growing rapidly. If
the article talks about the size of the church in any way – whether worldwide or in a
specific area, enter 1. Enter 1, even if the church is described as small compared with
other religions.
Also, if the article says – whether the writer or someone the reporter quotes or
paraphrases – that the church is growing, also enter 1.
If the writer, or someone the writer quotes or paraphrases discusses the church’s business
interests or the size of its financial holdings, also enter 1.
Otherwise, enter 0.
V37: Mormon Dimension 12. Disagreement on whether Mormons are Christian.
Enter 1 if the author, or someone the author quotes or paraphrases, raises the
question of whether Mormons are Christian.
Also enter 1 if it says some Christians – including evangelicals -- say Mormons are not
Christian or heretical.
198
Enter 1 as well if the author or anyone in the article says that Mormons are Christians or
not.
Enter 1 if any Mormon, including Romney, mentions Jesus Christ.
If the article does not discuss the “Mormons as Christian” question, enter 0.
V38: Past candidates’ religions or denominations. Count in each article the number of
previous presidential candidates who are mentioned along with their religions or
denominations.
This is for campaigns BEFORE 2008.
For example, if the article says: “JFK overcame Catholic prejudice to win the presidency
in 1960 while Catholic Al Smith failed with the same issue in 1928,” then enter 2.
V39: Name the past candidates and their religions or denominations. List the past
candidates that you counted in V38 by first and last name, and denomination
For example: John Kennedy, Catholic; Morris Udall, Mormon; George Romney,
Mormon.
V40: Candidates where religion isn’t mentioned. Count the number of presidential
candidates in each article who ran in years before 2008 about whom no mention of their
religion or denomination is in the article.
V41: Name the candidates to whom Romney was compared without religion being
mentioned. List the past candidates that you counted in V40 by first and last name.
Remember this is for candidacies before 2008.
Example: George W. Bush, Ross Perot.
V42: Type of story. Choose either 1 or 2.
Enter 1 for straight news story or feature – about an event in the campaign, generally
factual in tone.
Enter 2 for editorial. Look in indexes and headlines for “Editorial” or “Commentary”
or “Opinion” or “op/ed” or “news analysis.” All of those would be editorial. Uses of the
first person by the author are almost always 2 here.
THANK YOU for your assistance.
___________________
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Appendix B: Analysis of intercoder reliability.
The author and two coders evaluated 40 (just under one in five) of the articles in
the content analysis to ascertain intercoder reliability.400 These 40 articles were randomly
selected from the population of stories using Excel’s rand function.401
As Table B.1 shows, the overall intercoder reliability is 84 percent, suggesting the
study’s findings are reliable. The table shows the overall intercoder reliability of each
variable, as well.
Table B.1 Summary of intercoder reliability.
Number Description
1 Romney in the lead paragraph
2 Romney in the headline.
Total number of mentions of Mitt Romney by name in the
3 body of article, in a graphic caption or photo caption.
4 Does the article say Romney is Succeeding?
Does the article say Romney is suffering setbacks or is not
5 succeeding.
6 Helps Dimension 1: Romney's Morals and values
Helps Dimension 2: Romney’s experience, personality and
7 intellect
8 Helps Dimension 3: Romney’s religion
9 Helps Dimension 4: Romney’s looks
Helps Dimension 5: Romney’s campaign organization and
10 strategy
11 Helps Dimension 6: Romney stands on issues
12 Helps Dimension 7: His family
13 Hinders Dimension 1: His religion
14 Hinders Dimension 2: Romney’s changing opinions on issues
15 Hinders Dimension 3: Romney’s personality
16 Hinders Dimension 4: Romney’s wealth or Social class.
Intercoder
reliabiliity
100.00%
98.33%
65.83%
86.70%
74.20%
85.00%
80.00%
90.00%
95.00%
85.00%
87.50%
87.50%
68.30%
92.50%
97.50%
92.50%
400
Dr. Eric Embree, Ph.D., and Adam Bair, M.A. both share the author’s Mormon faith
with the study’s author, which may constitute a limitation of the study.
401
Three articles in the story population of 205 were added to the story population after
these 40 articles were separated out at random for the intercoder analysis. That means
that there was no chance any of the three could have been in the random sample, which
emerged from a population of only 202 stories. Close observation of these stories
suggested there was nothing especially unusual about them.
200
17 Hinders Dimension 5: Romney’s campaign and strategy
18 Mormonism being in the religious mainstream
Romney’s views are part of the American political
19 mainstream.
20 Mormon Dimension 1. Mormons practice polygamy
Mormon Dimension 2. Mormons discriminate against women
21 and people of color.
Mormon Dimension 3. Mormons believe in conservative
22 values and “clean-living.”
23 Mormon Dimension 4. Mormons are devout
24 Mormon dimension 5 Mormons are caring people.
Mormon Dimension 6: List of Mormon beliefs; "unusual
25 beliefs."
Mormon Dimension 7. Second list of Mormon beliefs, core
26 beliefs
Mormon Dimension 8: Mormons are secretive, dangerous,
27 deceptive or unusually insular.
Mormon Dimension 9: Mormons are quintessentially
28 American
Mormon Dimension 10. Mormons believe in what are often
called traditional family values. Family commitment is
29 central to their belief.
Mormon Dimension 11. The Mormon Church is large and
30 growing rapidly.
Mormon Dimension 12. Mormons may or may not be
31 Christian
32 Number of past candidates with religion
33 Name the past candidates and their religions
34 Number of Candidates where religion isn’t mentioned
Names of the candidates to whom Romney was compared
35 without religion being mentioned
OVERALL Intercoder reliability
81.70%
45.00%
49.00%
100.00%
95.00%
92.50%
77.50%
82.50%
81.70%
90.00%
80.00%
76.70%
80.00%
92.50%
72.50%
90.00%
90.00%
90.00%
90.00%
84.07%
Six of the 35 variables were somewhat problematic in terms of their reliability,
however, but other measurements suggest they were representative of important
information in other reliable ways. This needs further explanation.
The first of these six variables was variable 3, the total number of Romney
mentions in the article. This variable asked coders to count the number of times Romney
was mentioned in the article overall.
201
However, the real point of this variable, together with the two that preceded it,
was in determining whether Mitt Romney was the focus of the article.
So, the author summed these first three variables. The sum showed whether was
mentioned more than twice in total – whether the focus was on him in the article or not.
This compression yielded a perfect, 100 percent, agreement between the three coders who
researched these three variables on whether Romney was the focus of the articles or not.
The second of these was whether Romney was succeeding or suffering setbacks.
This tally counted the number of times such an assessment was made in the coverage.
As with the first problematic variable, it becomes less so when the results of this
variable are aggregated with the one that precedes it. This new composite variable shows
whether in the aggregate there are more mentions of whether Romney is succeeding,
suffering setbacks or neither in a given news article. This aggregation produced a solid
81 percent intercoder reliability.
The third of these problematic variables was hidners variable 1 -- whether the
article includes assertions that Romney’s religion would hinder his election chances. A
closer examination of the data on this variable suggested that coder 1, the author of the
study, was more likely than the other two coders to find that an article contained such an
assertion.
This suggests a potential problem in question wording. Coders 2 and 3 may have
only looked for references to polls that said Romney’s religion was a problem for his
election chances, not just overall statements to that effect.
202
Therefore, any findings focusing on the degree to which the news media said
directly that Mitt Romney’s Mormonism was a problem for his election chances should
be seen as having broad possible variability and some limits on their overall reliability.
However, there is an important level at which this variable is the least useful
variable in the entire dataset, and this lesser intercoder reliability makes little difference
in the study’s overall meaning or its findings.
Why? The vast amount of coverage of Mitt Romney and his Mormonism and the
fact that so many articles included both Romney and Mormon, suggests that Mormonism
and its trouble for Romney was considered newsworthy on an on-going basis.
Mormonism was a problem for Mitt Romney and reporters obviously thought so. They
wouldn’t have written so many articles if it hadn’t been.
The fourth and fifth variables were the degree to which coders agreed in their
Likert scale assessments of whether Mitt Romney’s views were in the mainstream and
the degree to which Mormonism was in the religious mainstream.
What the study was mainly interested in was the impression surrounding this
variable and on that there was close agreement. For example, on one article, coder1 might
put in a three and coder2, a 4, or vice-versa, with only a one-point variation in judgment.
Second, the overall mean of these variables was similar.
As Table B.2 shows, the means of all the coded Likert scores were very close,
exhibiting a difference of just more than four percent.
Table B.2: Difference in means for the Likert scale evaluations of whether Mormonism was portrayed as in the
religious mainstream.
Coder 2 average
Coder 1 average
2.45
2.275
203
This small difference in mean – which suggests that both coders in the aggregate
saw the portrayal of Mormonism was out the mainstream -- is an important, reliable
finding.
Third, as is shown in the second finding of section 2.4, the overall impression of
Mormonism’s being in the mainstream was supported by a second analysis comparing the
proportions of more mainstream variables with more idiosyncratic ones from this study.
This resulted in the same impression that, overall, Mormonism was portrayed as out of
the mainstream.
The variable demonstrating the degree to which Romney’s views were in the
mainstream was not used to support any findings in this study because of its low
intercoder reliability. The general sense of this finding was supported by other findings,
however.
The last of the variables that seemed to have slight intercoder reliability trouble is
the last Mormon variable – the most frequent Mormon dimension, it turns out – that
measures the frequency of the controversy over whether Mormons are Christian or not.
The agreement on this variable meets a common-sense standard. This lack of
variation means that this dimension was common in the coverage – though perhaps not
the most common element in the coverage, as is asserted in the findings.
Table B.3 provides further detail about this analysis. It shows how intercoder
reliability was calculated for the 11 variables that were recoded using three coders instead
of two. Coder 1 is the study’s author. The mean of the three calculations is what was
used to calculate the overall intercoder reliability of this study as shown in Table B.1.
204
Table B.3: Summary of intercoder reliability calculations for 11 variables that were recoded.
Variable
Romney in the lead
paragraph.
Agreement
between Coder
1 and Coder 3
Agreement
between Coder
1 and Coder 2
Agreement
between coder
2 and coder 3
100.00%
100.00%
100.00%
100.00%
97.50%
100.00%
97.50%
98.30%
57.50%
72.50%
67.50%
65.80%
85.00%
85.00%
90.00%
86.70%
72.50%
70.00%
80.00%
74.20%
80.00%
80.00%
95.00%
85.00%
72.50%
62.50%
70.00%
68.30%
80.00%
77.50%
87.50%
81.70%
40.00%
45.00%
62.00%
49.00%
85.00%
85.00%
80.00%
81.70%
75.00%
80.00%
75.00%
76.70%
Mean
Romney in the headline.
Total number of mentions of
Mitt Romney by name in the
body of article, in a graphic
caption or photo caption.
Does the article say Romney
is Succeeding?
Does the article say Romney
is suffering setbacks or is not
succeeding.
Helps Dimension 5:
Romney’s campaign
organization and strategy.
Hinders Dimension 1: his
religion.
Hinders Dimension 6:
Romney’s campaign and
strategy.
Romney’s views are part of
the American political
mainstream.
Mormon Dimension 6: List of
Mormon beliefs.
Mormon Dimension 9:
Mormons are quintessentially
American
205
Appendix C: Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” Speech402
Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind introduction.
It is an honor to be here today. This is an inspiring place because of you and the
First Lady and because of the film exhibited across the way in the Presidential library.
For those who have not seen it, it shows the President as a young pilot, shot down during
the Second World War, being rescued from his life-raft by the crew of an American
submarine. It is a moving reminder that when America has faced challenge and peril,
Americans rise to the occasion, willing to risk their very lives to defend freedom and
preserve our nation. We are in your debt. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, your generation rose to the occasion, first to defeat Fascism and
then to vanquish the Soviet Union. You left us, your children, a free and strong America.
It is why we call yours the greatest generation. It is now my generation’s turn. How we
respond to today’s challenges will define our generation. And it will determine what kind
of America we will leave our children, and theirs.
America faces a new generation of challenges. Radical violent Islam seeks to
destroy us. An emerging China endeavors to surpass our economic leadership. And we
are troubled at home by government overspending, overuse of foreign oil, and the
breakdown of the family.
Over the last year, we have embarked on a national debate on how best to
preserve American leadership. Today, I wish to address a topic which I believe is
fundamental to America’s greatness: our religious liberty. I will also offer perspectives
on how my own faith would inform my Presidency, if I were elected.
402
Transcription copied from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1935707/posts;
as prepared for delivery.
206
There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously
considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with
the nation’s founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the
blessings of the Creator. And further, they discovered the essential connection between
the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. In John Adams’ words:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions
unbridled by morality and religion... Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious
people.”
Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the
windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune
with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
Given our grand tradition of religious tolerance and liberty, some wonder whether
there are any questions regarding an aspiring candidate’s religion that are appropriate. I
believe there are. And I will answer them today.
Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was
an American running for President, not a Catholic running for President. Like him, I am
an American running for President. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A
person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his
faith.
Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that
matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within
the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.
As Governor, I tried to do the right as best I knew it, serving the law and
207
answering to the Constitution. I did not confuse the particular teachings of my church
with the obligations of the office and of the Constitution – and of course, I would not do
so as President. I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office
and the sovereign authority of the law.
As a young man, Lincoln described what he called America’s “political religion”
– the commitment to defend the rule of law and the Constitution. When I place my hand
on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God. If
I am fortunate to become your President, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no
one cause, and no one interest. A President must serve only the common cause of the
people of the United States.
There are some for whom these commitments are not enough. They would prefer
it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than
my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I
believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my
fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs.
Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they
are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not
respect believers of convenience. Americans tire of those who would jettison their
beliefs, even to gain the world.
There is one fundamental question about which I often am asked. What do I
believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of
mankind. My church’s beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other
faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for
208
criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow
principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree.
There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his
church’s distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders
prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith.
For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.
I believe that every faith I have encountered draws its adherents closer to God.
And in every faith I have come to know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love
the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of
the Evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident
independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the
ages, and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims. As I travel across the
country and see our towns and cities, I am always moved by the many houses of worship
with their steeples, all pointing to heaven, reminding us of the source of life’s blessings.
It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the
churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the
affairs of our nation are concerned, it’s usually a sound rule to focus on the latter – on the
great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of
abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed
in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.
We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No
religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of
religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been
209
taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public
domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no
place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America –
the religion of secularism. They are wrong.
The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not
countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation ‘Under
God’ and in God, we do indeed trust.
We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders – in ceremony and word.
He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and
during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public
places. Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation
of faith upon which our Constitution rests. I will take care to separate the affairs of
government from any religion, but I will not separate us from ‘the God who gave us
liberty.’
Nor would I separate us from our religious heritage. Perhaps the most important
question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: does he share these
American values: the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another, and a
steadfast commitment to liberty?
They are not unique to any one denomination. They belong to the great moral
inheritance we hold in common. They are the firm ground on which Americans of
different faiths meet and stand as a nation, united.
We believe that every single human being is a child of God – we are all part of the
human family. The conviction of the inherent and inalienable worth of every life is still
210
the most revolutionary political proposition ever advanced. John Adams put it that we are
“thrown into the world all equal and alike.”
The consequence of our common humanity is our responsibility to one another, to
our fellow Americans foremost, but also to every child of God. It is an obligation which
is fulfilled by Americans every day, here and across the globe, without regard to creed or
race or nationality.
Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of
government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty.
The lives of hundreds of thousands of America’s sons and daughters were laid down
during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people
throughout the world. America took nothing from that Century’s terrible wars – no land
from Germany or Japan or Korea; no treasure; no oath of fealty. America’s resolve in the
defense of liberty has been tested time and again. It has not been found wanting, nor must
it ever be. America must never falter in holding high the banner of freedom.
These American values, this great moral heritage, is shared and lived in my
religion as it is in yours. I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I
saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate
care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in
leading national volunteer movements. I am moved by the Lord’s words: “For I was an
hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger,
and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me...”
My faith is grounded on these truths. You can witness them in Ann and my
marriage and in our family. We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled
211
along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self-same as those from the other
faiths that stand upon this common foundation. And these convictions will indeed inform
my presidency.
Today’s generations of Americans have always known religious liberty. Perhaps
we forget the long and arduous path our nation’s forbearers took to achieve it. They came
here from England to seek freedom of religion. But upon finding it for themselves, they
at first denied it to others. Because of their diverse beliefs, Ann Hutchinson was exiled
from Massachusetts Bay, a banished Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, and two
centuries later, Brigham Young set out for the West. Americans were unable to
accommodate their commitment to their own faith with an appreciation for the
convictions of others to different faiths. In this, they were very much like those of the
European nations they had left.
It was in Philadelphia that our founding fathers defined a revolutionary vision of
liberty, grounded on self-evident truths about the equality of all, and the inalienable rights
with which each is endowed by his Creator.
We cherish these sacred rights, and secure them in our Constitutional order.
Foremost do we protect religious liberty, not as a matter of policy but as a matter of right.
There will be no established church, and we are guaranteed the free exercise of our
religion.
I’m not sure that we fully appreciate the profound implications of our tradition of
religious liberty. I have visited many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe. They are so
inspired ... so grand ... so empty. Raised up over generations, long ago, so many of the
cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too
212
“enlightened” to venture inside and kneel in prayer. The establishment of state religions
in Europe did no favor to Europe’s churches. And though you will find many people of
strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering away.
Infinitely worse is the other extreme, the creed of conversion by conquest: violent
Jihad, murder as martyrdom... killing Christians, Jews, and Muslims with equal
indifference. These radical Islamists do their preaching not by reason or example, but in
the coercion of minds and the shedding of blood. We face no greater danger today than
theocratic tyranny, and the boundless suffering these states and groups could inflict if
given the chance.
The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious
dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard
religious freedom as something to be destroyed.
In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason
and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and
dangers of the day. And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any
person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is
for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion
– rather, we welcome our nation’s symphony of faith.
Recall the early days of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, during the
fall of 1774. With Boston occupied by British troops, there were rumors of imminent
hostilities and fears of an impending war. In this time of peril, someone suggested that
they pray. But there were objections. “They were too divided in religious sentiments,”
what with Episcopalians and Quakers, Anabaptists and Congregationalists, Presbyterians
213
and Catholics.
Then Sam Adams rose, and said he would hear a prayer from anyone of piety and
good character, as long as they were a patriot.
And so together they prayed, and together they fought, and together, by the grace
of God ... they founded this great nation.
In that spirit, let us give thanks to the divine “author of liberty.” And together, let
us pray that this land may always be blessed, “with freedom’s holy light.”
God bless the United States of America.
214
Appendix D: Analysis of the influence of the coverage.
What influence did coverage of this Mormon issue have on Mitt Romney’s
campaign and on Mormonism itself? Of course, this study makes no formal assertions
from its own data because it was not an effects study. Nevertheless, external evidence
seems mixed and is included here as a discussion point for those interested in looking at
the Romney campaign as an effects study.
First, did the extensive coverage hurt Mormon missionary efforts and the church’s
growth? The answer is mixed. The number of baptisms into the Mormon Church
dropped about 5 percent between 2007403 and 2008.404 However, baptisms for 2008
were significantly higher than years as recent as 2004.405 So, the one-year drop may have
been no more than an anomaly. Beyond that, 2007 was the year where the greatest
attention was paid to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism while 2008 was a year that included
crackdowns against polygamists and Mormon involvement in Proposition 8.
Second, did it change public perceptions of Mormonism? Again, the record seems
mixed. Gallup, in the wake of Romney’s speech,406 noted that opinion remained
403
F. Michael Watson, “Statistical Report, 2007,” delivered at LDS General conference,
April 2008, at http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-851-9,00.html,
accessed August 19, 2009. These statistics do not break down baptisms by country.
404
Brook P. Hales, “Statistical Report, 2008,” delivered at LDS General conference,
April 2009, at http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-1032-10,00.html,
accessed August 19, 2009.
405
F. Michael Watson, “Statistical Report, 2004,” delivered at LDS General conference
April 2005, at http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-520-9,00.html,
accessed August 19, 2009.
406
Lydia Saad, “Percentage Unwilling to Vote for a Mormon Holds Steady,” Gallup.com,
under Politics, December 11, 2007, at http://www.gallup.com/poll/103150/percentageunwilling-vote-mormon-holds-steady.aspx, accessed January 29, 2010. Saad’s piece
leads to a question: Why didn’t Romney’s speech and the coverage about it improve the
willingness to vote for a Mormon? Perhaps media portrayals over the campaign had
215
unchanged about a Mormon being elected president. In February 2008, political pollster,
researcher and Mormon Gary Lawrence407 undertook among the largest public opinion
studies of Mormon perceptions ever undertaken. He talked with 1,000 Americans in his
study and created more than 160 variables about Mormons in his research. Lawrence
argued the Mormon image worsened during the campaign period by nearly five
percentage points.408
Third, did the coverage improve public understanding of Mormonism? The
answer seems unequivocally no. So, an unfortunate consequence of the coverage may be
that Americans learned little concrete about the Mormon faith from it. Lawrence409 and
Pew410 found continuing ignorance and confusion about Mormon beliefs. After more
than a year of campaign discussions, fewer than half of the respondents to Pew’s survey
could accurately identify Mitt Romney as a Mormon practitioner and Lawrence found
ignorance about Mormonism to be his central finding. Early on in the campaign, The
Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza made the same point in his breakdown of several
Mormon polls early in the campaign.411 The fact is, journalists tried to explain many
made it too difficult to cut through. Perhaps the speech just didn’t work. It also shows a
stubborn similarity to the opinion of his father’s faith in 1967.
407
Stanford, Ph.D., communication, 1972.
408
Gary C. Lawrence., How Americans View Mormonism, Seven Steps to Improve Our
Public Image, (Orange, CA: Parameter Foundation, 2008), 22.
409
Lawrence, How Americans View Mormonism, 5.
410
Scott Keeter, “How the Public Perceives Romney, Mormons, Candidate Recently
Discussed Role of Religion in Public Life,” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life,
December 4, 2007, at http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=267, accessed August 19, 2009.
411
Cillizza, Chris, “Parsing the Polls: Answering the Mormon Question,” The Fix,
Washingtonpost.com politics blog, February 14, 2007, at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/parsing-the-polls/parsing-the-polls-the-mormonq.html, accessed August 19, 2007.
216
elements in Mormonism. That ignorance about Mormonism remained suggests
journalists failed in their efforts.
A narrow sense of this study was that writers often “got” some fundamentals of
Mormonism.412 They covered in some ways what makes Mormonism unique – and its
central religious claims, at least at a basic level. This finding might lead to the
conclusion that misunderstanding among the public should have been lessened. Indeed,
most of the media outlets in the study, seeing the lack of public understanding about the
faith, wrote articles explicating Mormon doctrine. But, over the course of the coverage,
writers also focused on “polygamy” and similar doctrines that were not in the mainstream
and sometimes distorted Mormonism. Writers also framed Mormonism as secretive,
thereby implying that Mormons can’t be understood because of the secretiveness.
Beyond that, the wide diversity of description of Mormon beliefs in the campaign
coverage – and inconsistency among stories about which dimensions of the faith came
up, may have abetted this confusion about Mormonism. Of course, it is quite possible
that many people didn’t see or read the media reports, despite their strong presence.
It is hard to remember a religious discussion of one religion in recent decades of
more detail and depth over two years in American journalistic discourse than what
412
The idea of “getting” to the essence of Mormonism is, in some ways, a largely
subjective process. The typology selected here is more or less covered in the first
Mormon missionary discussion. These include doctrinal ideas including prophets, the
Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and restoration. This study asked merely if any of these
foundational doctrines were mentioned – even to the point that an article said merely that
the Mormon Church calls its leaders apostles and prophets. The study did not address the
degree to which those doctrines were either explicated or supported theologically or
portrayed favorably. So, to say journalists “got” Mormonism is a minimum standard.
217
happened during the 2008 Romney campaign and Mormonism.413 If this assertion is true,
then the coverage represents a case study of the best the news media can do with
doctrinal discussions. That Americans continued to report significant ignorance about
Mormonism into 2008 makes the Romney campaign coverage something of a rebuke of
religion coverage generally. On the other hand, a recent study out of Pew suggested that
Mormons, while not well understood, may be slightly better understood than other
religions in America.414
Fourth, did the coverage hinder Romney’s chances of winning? As to effects on
the Romney campaign, the best evidence of potential influence of the coverage is that
Romney lost. Certainly, the play of Mormonism before the Iowa caucuses may have
been deeply significant. What appears at least as likely is the media accurately reported
on an electoral dilemma that Romney failed to overcome.
Therefore, this study, while not effects research per se, suggests that the influence
of the coverage on the election outcome based upon external evidence seems real but
slight. It might well be that the post-material issues involved in religion and the culture
war are less susceptible to strong media influence. Irreducible difference among
religions and between strongly held views on cultural war issues may be much less
amenable to changing opinions through framing. However, the coverage may have
413
Little analysis to support this assertion, other than reflect upon the religion and media
literature, but it seems safe to say that this was among the most detailed discussions of
any sets of religion doctrine and dogma in recent history of religious coverage given that
only 7 percent of religion stories include discussions of doctrine. Certainly, there is
nothing comparable in Mormon coverage’s recent history.
414
Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, “U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey,”
September 28, 2010, under Pew Center Publications at
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1745/religious-knowledge-in-america-survey-atheistsagnostics-score-highest, accessed December 27, 2010.
218
primed and maintained Mormon stereotypes in some voters’ minds, thereby hindering
Romney’s ability to persuade during a close election for which he was well-positioned.
This keeps the evidence completely consistent with assertions about the power of media
framing.415
Furthermore, Bolce and De Maio’s416 argument that media portrayals have caused
negative perceptions of evangelicals gains somewhat greater traction, as well. Their
argument was that there remains a persistent anti-evangelical bias in public opinion polls.
Such a bias comes from media portrayals more likely than from interpersonal interactions
with evangelicals, they said. Insofar as Mormons were seen as less favorable in public
opinion polls after the campaign than before it, this study provides some support to this
emerging line of research that suggests that media portrayals of religion are influencing
public opinion about those religions and, therefore, are an important influence in the
nation’s cultural and political wars. To the degree that Mormonism remained opaque,
confusing and secretive to voters, it hindered public perceptions of Mormons and Mitt
Romney.
415
Iyengar, Is Anyone Responsible?
416
Bolce and De Maio, “A prejudice for the thinking classes.”
219
Appendix E: Examples of Secrecy or Evasive Framing in the Coverage.
What follows are examples of ways that secrecy or similar concepts seemed part
of the coverage, even when the word secrecy wasn’t always used. In the analysis of the
205 stories that comprised this study, it seemed that reporters were frequently drawn to
mystery, to secrecy, to evasiveness and to vagueness as a theme of their coverage, not
just in the coverage of Mitt Romney but in Mormonism as well and in even the coverage
of the religion of Mike Huckabee. What seemed clear is that secrecy was even more
prominent of a theme than the quantitative data suggested. Therefore, this list was
created as one way of suggesting for a future analysis how secrecy as a theme seemed to
play out in the Romney campaign coverage that involved Mormonism and how it may
play out in coverage of religion in general. This is a qualitative impression not subject to
intercoder reliability. This is meant as supporting evidence to the finding that secrecy as a
theme was present in the coverage. It might be said that a criticism of this list is that it
conflates too frequently Romney’s shift of opinion as being secretive or deceptive and
that it includes Mike Huckabee. The point here is to convey one impression the data of
the study seemed to convey: that secrecy or hidden agendas seemed a common theme in
the coverage, and is, therefore, a suggestion for further research. This list includes
examples from 59 articles – comprising nearly 30 percent of the overall coverage.
Table E.1: Qualitative examples of secrecy present in the coverage of Mitt Romney and his Mormonism.
Source
Headline
Date
AP
Romney says he’d serve
nation, not Mormon Church, if
elected
7-Dec07
AP
Analysis: Clinton, Romney
6-Dec-
220
Example
"After declining for months to address
the issue of his Mormonism directly…
Romney mentioned the word Mormon
only once"
“Clearly Romney changed his position
shift course in White House
race
AP
AP
AP
AP
Theology, doctrine, the root of
evangelical-Mormon divide
Romney professes pride in
Mormon faith despite
questions
07
6-Dec07
16May07
28Nov07
Hatch: Romney should say
he's his own man
Romney: Repeated campaign
attacks on Mormon religion
troubling
23Jun-07
AP
California's first Mormon
studies professorship at
Claremont
30Oct-07
AP
Huckabee declines to say what
he thinks about Mormonism
4-Dec07
AP
Huckabee asks if Mormons
believe Jesus, devil are
brothers
Romney says he will give
speech about his Mormon
religion
AP
More temples and more
followers mark Hinckley’s
church tenure
AP
12Dec07
3-Dec07
29Jan-08
221
in terms of delivering a major speech,
said David Winston, a Republican
pollster not aligned with any of the
candidates.”
“Despite 177 years of history, much
about The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints the church of
Republican presidential candidate Mitt
Romney remains a mystery to most.”
“Despite skirting inquiries about his
Mormon faith during the first Bible
Belt debate, Republican Mitt Romney
said Wednesday he will not shrink
from any future questions ‘because
I’m real pleased with my faith.’”
“He said there’s much
"misinformation" in the public about
the Mormon religion, though he
declined to offer any specifics.”
“’His unwillingness to address his past
support campaign finance reform is
part of a pattern that illustrates he will
say and do anything in an attempt to
win the nomination,’ Bounds said.”
“Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for
Clinton, fired back: ‘Hillary Clinton
needs no lessons on character from a
man who switches his positions on a
daily basis.’”
“Huckabee declines to say what he
thinks about Mormonism.”
“He (Huckabee) also resisted wading
into theology when pressed to explain
why some evangelicals don’t view the
Mormon faith as a Christian
denomination.”
“I can tell you I’m not going to be
talking so much about my faith.”
“Mormon church finances are not
public not even to its members but the
church, which asks members to give
10 percent of their income, is believed
to be one of the richest in the world.”
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
AP
CT
Romney praised in Utah for
avoiding the specifics of
Mormonism
Tight race in Iowa leads to
risky decision
Romney assails Sharpton’s
comments about God, faith
Republican Romney to give
speech on his Mormon faith
Analysis: Mormon leader’s
death renews focus on
Romney’s faith
6-Dec07
4-Dec07
9May07
2-Dec07
1-Feb08
12Dec07
Romney: Attacks on religion
go too far
Analysis:Romney faith speech
decision highlights advisers’
mark
Analysis: Romney also
addresses authenticity
question in speech
In-your-face-gospel riles
town; Christian couple’s
12Nov07
6-Dec07
15Apr-
222
“Romney praised in Utah for avoiding
the specifics of Mormonism.”
“Romney said Monday his speech will
not focus on the tenets of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
the formal name for his Utah-based
faith.”
“Romney, the former governor of
Massachusetts, hasn’t addressed such
questions so directly, but he has been
clear that his religion wouldn’t dictate
his policies.”
“But Huckabee, in an interview on
ABC’s "This Week," took a pass when
asked if Mormonism contradicts the
central teachings of Christianity.”
“The death of Mormon church
President Gordon B. Hinckley renews
attention on Mitt Romney’s littleknown religion, yet rather than being
reluctant to discuss it, he’s making a
public embrace that shows some
shifting political attitudes.”
“The former Massachusetts governor
also was asked why he used the term
"Mormon" only once last week in a
highly publicized speech about
religion in which he said he was proud
of his faith.”
“The presidential candidate has put
aside his desire to deliver a speech
about his Mormon faith on the advice
of political staff.”
“Thus, he mentioned the word
‘Mormon’ just once in the address, and
that was a promise not to run from his
faith.”
“ ’Something about the Mormon
religion apparently disturbs a
confrontational style gets
hostile response in Mormon
Nauvoo
CT
CT
07
In election, spirited debate;
Mitt Romney, a Mormon, has
seen his religion drawn into
the spotlight as the race for the
presidency touches on
sensitive issues
Poll: Vote taboos in U.S. shift;
Muslims, Mormons elicit
unease in some
16Dec07
3-Jul06
significant portion of the American
population,’ pollsters said.; ...’Look at
their history full of lies and deceit,’ he
said. ‘We are a voice of truth and they
will do anything to silence it.’”
“Even among themselves, Mormons
try not to speak about temple
ceremonies outside the building itself.
Mormons do not consider this secrecy,
but reverence.”
“Romney is reluctant to discuss his
religion, citing privacy and contending
that candidates should not be judged
on their ‘brand of faith.’”
“In the past, church officials largely
distanced themselves from public
scrutiny, perpetuating the notion that
the religion is strange and secretive.
CT
CT
Mormons on a mission to tell
their story; Romney candidacy
shines spotlight on growing
religion
Romney a hard sell for
evangelicals
Romney: No church above
duty of office
CT
CT
9-Dec07
7-Dec07
Can a Mormon be president?
Romney must erase
electorate’s worries on his
faith for ‘08 bid
Mormon mission
CT
CT
14Oct-07
17Dec06
22Jul-07
Playing the Religion Card a
Bad Deal
10Dec07
223
… As the nation watches, the Mormon
Church now stands at a crossroads,
struggling with how to portray itself to
the public and whether to be more
forthcoming about church beliefs.”
“misunderstood rituals such as secret
temple ceremonies and wearing of
sacred undergarments.”
“Romney made no attempt Thursday
to address the tenets of his religion.”
“They are a mystery to many
Americans,
While any religion has its share of
mystery, the Mormon Church has
inspired a large army of critics.”
“The God of the founders, the God on
the coinage, the God for whom
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed
Thanksgiving Day is the ineffable,
ecumenical, non-sectarian Providence
of the American civil religion whose
relation to this blessed land is without
appeal to any particular testament or
ritual. Every mention of God in every
inaugural address in American history
refers to the deity in this kind of allembracing, universal, nondenominational way.”
LAT
LAT
LAT
LAT
LAT
LAT
A tale of two speeches
The Nation: It’s about faith
with Romney, Religion aside,
he hasn’t overcome what
voters see as shifting positions
Campaign ‘08: Evangelicals
may never take Romney on
faith; A defense of religious
liberty may not quell doubts
about his beliefs.
The Nation; Mormon
Theology is striking in its
differences
Regarding Media, Romney’s
Religious rights
Times/Bloomberg Poll; A
Mormon for President? Voters
Balk; More than twice as
9-Jan08
5-Dec07
7-Dec07
7-Dec07
13Jan-07
3-Jul06
224
“As Romney’s and Obama’s
contrasting experiences demonstrate,
silence is seldom golden in politics.”
“But now that voters have met him,
many are ready to offer an opinion:
They still do not know who he is.;
...His failure to present a clear picture
of his faith and its role in his life
appears to be just one part of a broader
challenge: proving to GOP voters that
he is being straightforward with them.”
“That leaves the court open, however,
for pundits to pick apart Mormon
theology and endlessly rehash some of
the doctrines that may strike voters as
unusual, such as secret ceremonies to
baptize the dead and to ‘seal’ them in
temple marriages so they can reach the
most exalted realms of heaven.”
“Mitt Romney avoided discussing
theology -- except for this:
arguing that faith is properly a private
matter does not diminish the
importance of religious conviction; ...
This tacit arrangement is a deep
expression of social sanity and makes
possible not only the separation of
church and state in a nation where faith
flourishes, but also the unparalleled
flowering of every sort of religious
institution -- devotional, educational
and charitable -- that is one of
American culture’s unique
achievements.”
“Romney is reticent about his religion,
citing privacy.”
manay say they’d oppose a
Muslim or a Latter-day Saint
than a Jew or a Cahtolic. Mitt
Romney could have a problem
LAT
LAT
Romney’s JFK Moment
Romney’s 2008 Bid Faces
Issue of Faith; Massachusetts’
GOP governor has political
promise, but voters may not
embrace a Mormon
Regarding Media: Press Preys
on wrong question
LAT
Mormon-studies professorship
is California’s first; The
program at Claremont
Graduate University will be
led by church elder Richard
Lyman Bushman
LAT
Newsweek
Newsweek
NYT
NYT
Mitt’s Mission: Voters can’t
connect with a candidate they
feel they don’t know. Mitt
Romney has to decide how
much he wants to share.
4-Dec07
10Oct-06
8-Dec07
30Oct-07
8-Oct07
17Dec07
A New American Holy War
Romney, Eye on Evangelicals,
Defends His Faith
7-Dec07
16Dec07
The Stay-at-Home Woman
Travels Well
225
“So far, Romney’s stance has been
much more akin to 1928 Democratic
nominee Al Smith, who largely
refused to discuss his faith.”
“Steadfastly decreeing that his faith
was a private matter.”
“ Romney, who used the word
Mormon only once, told his audience.”
“The religion, which is growing
quickly worldwide but also raising
puzzlement and even hostility.”
“For all his strengths, however,
Romney has been unable to shake his
authenticity problem, the sense that he
is a glossy and robotic candidate who
will say anything to get elected and
believes nothing in his heart; The
awareness of how odd this will sound
to many Americans is what makes
Romney hesitant to elaborate on the
Mormon question.”
“In College Station, Romney avoided
explaining the particulars of the
Mormon Church.”
“In a speech that used the word
‘Mormon’ only once.;” … The passing
mention of his Mormonism in his 20minute speech here at the George Bush
Presidential Library underscored just
how touchy the issue of Mr. Romney’s
faith has been since he began running
for the Republican nomination.“
“‘He is trying so hard not to make the
same mistake as his father at the
expense of swinging a little too far the
other way,’ Mr. Eyre said.
‘’Everything he says sounds like he
has practiced it three times.’”
NYT
NYT
NYT
NYT
The Presidency’s Mormon
Moment
What is it About Mormonism?
9-Apr07
6-Jan08
14Dec07
Huckabee Is Not Alone In
Ignorance on Mormonism
Mitt’s No J.F.K.
9-Dec07
NYT
Crucial Test for Romney in
Speech on His Religion
6-Dec07
NYT
A Mormons Ultimate
9-Dec-
226
“57 percent of respondents to a recent
CBS poll said they know little or
nothing about Mormon beliefs and
practices. Mr. Romney needs to be
their teacher, whether he likes that role
or not.”
“A majority of Americans have no
idea what Mormons believe. …
Mormonism, it seems, is extreme in
both respects: in its exaggerated
normalcy and its exaggerated oddity.
The marriage of these opposites leaves
outsiders uncomfortable, wondering
what Mormonism really is. … The
Mormon path to normalization over
the course of the 20th century
depended heavily on this avoidance of
public discussion of its religious
tenets.”
“Americans are notoriously
uninformed about faiths other than
their own, and they are particularly
perplexed about Mormon beliefs.”
“But even for those of us in religions
that were once considered cults by
other religions -- my mom and another
Catholic girlfriend actually had
Southern Protestants ask them to lift
up their hair so they could see the
mark of the devil or the horns -Mormonism is opaque.”
“But some scholars and evangelical
Christians, who make up a crucial
voting bloc in the Republican Party
and consider Mormonism to be
heretical, say that many voters would
like to hear more from Mr. Romney
about exactly what he believes, even
though he has studiously avoided
discussing this except in the broadest
terms.”
“Christian talk shows and Web sites
Doorbell
NYT
NYT
Time
Time
WP
Scholar Becomes Chief
Explainer in a ‘Mormon
Moment’
28Jul-07
18Dec07
For Romney, a course set long
ago
The Religion Test
Can a Mormon be President?
In Speech on Faith, Romney
Vows to Serve ‘No One
Cause’
Did Mormons Get a Bounce
from Mitt?
WP
07
21May07
4-Dec06
7-Dec07
8-Feb08
227
are now buzzing about Mormonism,
discussions glazed with conspiratorial
allusions to ‘what Romney didn’t
say.’”
“For the nation’s nearly six million
Mormons, a largely insulated
community that is barred from
discussing rituals outside of temple, it
is not a natural posture.”
“It was a reaction to his father’s
careless candor that has led Mitt
Romney to rely on polished sound
bites of Republican orthodoxy.”
“Weisberg observes that modern
political discourse seems to permit the
exploration of candidates’ every secret
except their most basic philosophical
beliefs … There has always been a
certain virtue in vagueness when it
comes to presidential piety, and
Eisenhower, a Presbyterian convert
raised by Jehovah’s Witnesses,
benefited from discussing spirituality
in the most general terms.”
“Mitt Romney will have to explain a
faith that remains mysterious to many;
…. Give them a chance to demystify
their theology and customs; ... though
Mormons are known for family
centeredness, hard work and clean
living, many Americans remain
suspicious of them, maybe because so
many aspects of their faith remain
mysterious.”
“But he declined to attempt to
demystify the teachings of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as
some had suggested he might have to
do.”
“But politics doesn’t permit that sort of
honesty any more than it allows a
candidate to say, ‘My faith is private,
okay?’”
Appendix F: Mormonism in the Coverage of Mitt Romney’s first two
Campaigns in Massachusetts.
Long before the 2008 election ended with a rebuke from comedian Jon Stewart
who called Romney a “salt-and-pepper, man-shaped-polymer-casing for a spiritual
vacuum,”417 Mitt Romney was seen as hard to know, even strange in 1994. In a 3,500word Living section feature article about Ann Romney, the candidate’s wife, reporter
Jack Thomas wrote,
“Suddenly, the room is empty.
At the far end hangs a portrait of Mitt and Ann Romney that is, in its
perfection, eerie. He is perfectly handsome. She is perfectly beautiful. The
background and lighting are impeccable. They are dressed flawlessly. No
cowlicks, no wrinkles, no moles, not even a freckle. From the shadows,
one imagines Rod Serling stepping forward:
“Welcome to the perfect town of Belmont and to this perfect home.
Meet Mitt and Ann Romney, high school sweethearts still perfectly in
love. Both intelligent. Both well-educated. Both millionaires. Their five
sons are hale and handsome, and if the family dog, McKenzie, looks
puzzled, he may be wondering how he arrived in this perfect place and
what he’s doing in . . . the Twilight Zone.”418
Whether or not there is any linkage between Mormonism as unusual, evasive or
secretive and these portrayals of Romney as strange, Mormonism played a dense roll in
the campaign coverage of Mitt Romney in 1994 and, to a lesser extent, in 2002. The
coverage suggested many themes that recurred during the 2008 campaign, suggesting the
role 1994 may have played in setting some of the frames through which Mitt Romney
417
Jon Stewart, “Mitt Drops Out,” The Daily Show, February 7, 2008, video at
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=156317&title=mitt-drops-out,
accessed May 1, 2009. The climax of his monologue was a deleted “F--- you” directed at
the former candidate.
418
Jack Thomas, “Ann Romney’s Sweetheart Deal: She Decided Her Love of 30 years
should be a Senator,” The Boston Globe, October 20, 1994, 61.
228
would be evaluated later, most especially the sense that Mitt Romney wasn’t being fully
forthcoming.
The first politicians to bring Mormonism up in 1994 weren’t Democrats, but
fellow Republicans, competing against him in the Senate primary. A member of
Republican radio personality Janet Jeghelian’s campaign staff brought up the fact that
Romney was a Mormon as soon as February 1994, saying Romney would have to explain
his religion during the campaign.419 John Lakian, another Republican rival, regularly
brought up religion in that 1994 campaign. In one memorable debate exchange, Lakian
stumbled, first calling Romney, “Mr. Mormon,” then “Mr. Mormey,” before getting to
“Mr. Romney.” Lakian’s campaign also sent out a fundraising letter saying that Romney,
“a former Mormon bishop,” had said homosexuality is perverse.420 Lakian’s efforts show
this dynamic by suggesting there is something sinister about what might be seen as
“hidden views” in Romney’s approach to faith and public policy.
Lakian and Jeghelian’s efforts, however, were framed as a form of bigotry and
seemingly hurt these Republicans’ chances. Commentator Wayne Woodlief noted, for
example, said that Lakian was a “lying laughingstock,” whose chances were slipping
away and whose back-firing efforts caused talk show commentators to “spit him out.”
The press thereby allowed Romney to “counterframe” this discussion of Mormonism as
religious bigotry just as John Kennedy had done during his 1960 election.421 Jeghelian,
419
Christopher B. Daly and Ann O’ Hanlon, “Senator Kennedy’s GOP Rivals Caught in
Sniping Match,” Washington Post, February 14, 1994, A9. See also, Frank Phillips,
“Mormon Roots stir a 3-way GOP fight,” Boston Globe, February 4, 1994, 21.
420
Wayne Woodlief, “Politics Inside Out: Lakian finds Truth Hurts and Again the Jokes
on Him,” Boston Herald, September 2, 1994, 5.
421
Ibid.
229
for her part, was forced to rein in the aide who brought up Romney’s faith.422 At one
point in the campaign, Lakian argued that Romney’s cries of bigotry were red herrings,
efforts to discourage discussion of any real issues. Lakian’s newer argument suggested
that his efforts to use Mormonism as a wedge issue had failed.423
It was the Boston Globe that kept Romney’s religion alive after Romney won the
Republican primary with a series of often hard-hitting stories. Indeed, the Massachusetts
press – the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe together -- had at least 60 stories that
discussed Romney and Mormonism during the 1994 campaign. Many of the articles
seemed to build on the sense that Romney wasn’t being forthcoming in his religious
activities, and there was something sinister about what he believed.424 Some examples of
the coverage:
• On May 22, the Boston Globe ran its article, “Romney quiet on religious
beliefs,” which introduced many doctrines – the Mormon view on women and the
Mormon view on blacks – that were part of the Mormon experience, while noting that
Romney was not going to talk about them.425
• On Aug. 26, Frank Phillips and Scot Lehigh wrote a detailed article that quoted
a former Mormon, Peggy Hayes, who said Romney, acting in his capacity as a lay
422
Daly and O’Hanlon, “Senator Kennedy’s GOP Rivals Caught in Sniping Match.”
423
Sally Jacobs, “Romney’s ‘red flag’ challenged: Lakian says rival cites religion to stifle
debate,” Boston Globe, September 3, 1994, 21.
424
The reporting at this time might be argued as a genuine attempt to demonstrate how
Romney’s beliefs might influence his policies. Romney’s Mormonism may very well
have influenced his stands on gay marriage, for example. On the other hand, by picking
challenging elements of Romney’s faith, the reports also created and highlighted the
conflict and horse race of a campaign.
425
Frank Phillips, and Don Aucoin, “Romney quiet on religious beliefs: Was local leader
in Mormon Church,” Boston Globe, May 22, 1994, 29.
230
minister, had threatened her with excommunication if she refused to give up her child for
adoption. Romney’s activities as a lay minister were, he said, confidential – adding to a
sense of secretiveness in Mitt Romney. Romney issued a limited statement saying he
disagreed with what she said, citing the fact that she hadn’t heeded his advice and was
never excommunicated. The article talked in detail about church policy dealing with
adoption and unwed mothers.426
• Jack Thomas’ October 20 feature on Ann Romney described the candidate’s
Mormon upbringing. Its “Twilight Zone” metaphor was near the top of the article, but
also portrayed Romney as rich and out-of-touch.427
• A July article talked about Romney’s secretive fundraising efforts among
Mormons in Utah in Romney’s behalf.428
• In Ben Bradlee Jr.’s 2,000-plus-word, front-page feature about Romney, it
discussed in detail the way he worked with women in his congregation. Bradlee wrote,
426
Frank Phillips and Scot Lehigh, “Single Mother tells of the advice Romney gave as
Mormon counselor,” Boston Globe, August 26, 1994, 23.
427
Thomas, “Ann Romney’s Sweetheart Deal.” It may be something of a stretch to say
that Romney’s wealth is a heuristic for secretiveness or danger, yet that argument can be
made. A classic stereotype of an Arab often includes exorbitant, carnal wealth. The
stereotype of Judaism includes similar portrayals of Jewish banking and wealth. As part
of that anti-semitic stereotype is the idea that the wealth is threatening and these people
can’t fully be trusted. Similarly, Mormon stereotypes often focus on wealth – including
important historical articles like John Henry Lewis’ muckrake – “The Viper on the
Hearth,” and Wallace Turner’s New York Times series in 1966 during the campaign of
George Romney. (See Appendix J and Appendix I for references and details.) The point?
Continued attention to Romney’s wealth as a framing choice might be seen qualitatively
as a linkage to this kind of secretive, vaguely anti-Semitic stereotype.
428
Frank Phillips, “Romney camp fears Kennedy infiltration: Fund-raising plans kept
secret,” Boston Globe, July 29, 1994,
231
“some in the Boston area have crossed swords with Romney over the role of women in
the church.” 429
• On July 15, Lehigh and Phillips again brought up Romney’s faith by describing
a talk Romney had with singles at a the Mormon Cambridge University Ward, saying that
Romney allegedly said that homosexuality was “perverse.”430 The story was big news
the next day, as well. Romney denied having said what was alleged or that it was taken
out of context.
• In October, the pair of Boston Globe writers, who are now political
commentators for the paper, wrote that Romney had counseled Mormon women against
having abortions – saying this counsel wasn’t in confluence with his stance of being prochoice.431
The coverage was such that Romney “asked why the Globe was not posing
questions about religious issues to Kennedy.” The Globe seemed to respond to that
criticism, citing the fact that Ted Kennedy said he supports the ordination of women.
The articles brought a rebuke from the Catholic Archdiocese. Its newspaper, The Pilot,
wrote, “Does one have to be a cynic to think that The Globe would like to portray Mitt
Romney as an anti-woman Mormon and therefore unfit for the Senate?”432
429
Ben Bradley Jr., “Romney seeks new chapter in success: Family, religion, politics
shape Senate candidate’s life, First of two parts on the life of a prominent newcomer on
the Massachusetts political scene,” Boston Globe, August 7, 1994, 1. (Bradlee’s article
certainly includes defenders of Romney’s church work.)
430
Scot Lehigh and Frank Phillips, “Romney allegedly faulted gays in talk to Mormons,”
Boston Globe, July 15, 1994.
431
Scot Lehigh and Frank Phillips, “Romney admits advice against abortion: says he sees
no conflict with political stance,” Boston Globe, October 20, 1994.
432
James L. Franklin, “Cardinal criticizes Globe, Kennedy: Says question on women as
priests inappropriate,” Boston Globe, September 9, 1994.
232
After Romney defeated his Republican opponents in the primary, polls showed
Romney locked in a close race with the incumbent, Ted Kennedy. In mid-September, as
it appeared that Romney would easily win the primary, Kennedy’s nephew, Joseph P.,
told an interviewer that Mormons treat women and blacks as “second-class citizens.”
Romney’s camp called Kennedy a religious bigot. The Boston Herald implied that there
may have been some truth in the accusation that Kennedy made.433 Joe Kennedy called to
apologize a few days later – which kept the issue in the news. Romney’s campaign
refused to accept the apology, saying it was sleazy.434 On Sept. 26, Ted Kennedy
suggested that Mormons treatment of blacks was a legitimate question to ask Romney.
Romney responded on Sept. 27 with a “dramatic press conference,” where he accused
Ted of trying to sully his brother’s legacy – JFK had tackled the religious bigotry
question in 1960.435 Kennedy backtracked.
Romney set the comparison to JFK that became so common in Romney’s
coverage in 2008 with this press conference and debate. Kennedy’s most successful
attacks on Romney were for his wealth and experience and having no blacks in his
campaign upper management at Bain Capital.436
The amount that the Mormonism issue hindered Romney’s campaign is unclear.
In some sense, it seemed to work in Romney’s favor as both Ted Kennedy and John
433
“Politics Inside Out: Joe K, Romney bear their crosses,” editorial, Boston Herald,
September 18, 1994, 37.
434
Joe Battenfeld and Andrew Miga, “Joe K phone apology to Mitt,” Boston Herald,
September 24, 1994, 1.
435
Scot Lehigh and Frank Phillips, “Romney hits Kennedy on faith issue: Says senator is
betraying JFK’s stand,” Boston Globe, September 28, 1994, 1.
436
Joe Battenfield, “Mitt rips Ted’s character, says negative ads will backfire,” Boston
Herald, November 1, 1994, 1.
233
Lakian were easily framed as bigots, even allowing Romney to capture some of the
mantle of JFK. But at least one story suggested the coverage did have a negative effect on
some voters.437 Whatever the cause of his weakness, Romney lost.
Romney next entered politics in 2002, after his successful management of the
2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, as he successfully ran for Massachusetts
governor on the Republican ticket. Romney’s 2002 campaign coverage still featured
Mormonism, and the secretive stereotype re-emerged. However, coverage of
Mormonism was only about half as frequent as it was in 1994.438 Romney’s win made
him only the second chief executive in Massachusetts history – other than Michael
Dukakis – who didn’t come from a faith tradition that had a large following in
Massachusetts.
The Boston Globe speculated that some of the reason religion was less of a factor
was that Shannon O-Brien, Romney’s opponent and a Catholic, couldn’t easily bring up
religion without providing emphasis to her religion, which was going through scandal at
the time. Similarly, religious sensibilities shortly after 9/11 made it less likely those
commentators could easily talk about religion pejoratively.439 Nevertheless, Mormonism
was still prominent in the campaign in 2002. Some examples:
• In September 2002, Robert Coard, the president of Boston Community
Development at an event where he hosted Romney’s opponent, called on Romney to
explain his views on blacks and on women, given his church’s stands. Romney
437
Wayne Woodlief, “Voters give Kennedy a ‘Yes, but,’” Boston Herald October 6,
1994, 39.
438
Michael Paulson, “Election 2002 / Religion, Heritage: Romney win seen as
acceptance of Mormons,” Boston Globe, November 9, 2002, B1.
439
Ibid.
234
responded by saying the church shouldn’t be inserted into the campaign at all. 440 The
comment caused other editorial commentary in the press. The Boston Herald, much as it
had done with John Lakian nearly a decade earlier, framed Coard’s remarks as bigotry,
suggesting he could not have said about Jews and Catholics what he said of Mormons
without notice, so he should face rebuke for his comments.441 Thomas Keane, another
Herald writer, wrote on October 2, that “Mormonism doesn’t deserve a backlash.”442
• On Oct. 19, a Boston Herald column said Romney and O’Brian were not being
true to their beliefs, and, as such, weren’t worthy of total respect. The author, Joe
Fitzgerald, made the point that Romney was responsible for the stereotype of secret
running throughout his campaigns:
Romney, regurgitating the rationalizations that infuriated his
followers in the past, told reporters his faith should play no part in his
campaign. But if that faith is part of his life, how can it not be part of his
campaign, unless the goal of his handlers is to camouflage the man in the
packaging of the candidate.443
• In a discussion of gender’s role in the campaign, the Herald’s Beardsley said,
Meanwhile, Romney has fended off constant whispers that women
can’t trust him to protect abortion rights because of his Mormon faith, and
that he treats his running mate Kerry Healey as window- dressing.444
Of note, Romney’s treatment of women as a Mormon was a common theme in his
440
Elizabeth Beardsley, “Minority leader raises issue with Romney’s religion,” Boston
Herald, September 27, 2002.
441
“The Ugliness of Bigotry,” editorial, Boston Herald, September 30, 2002, 18.
442
Thomas Keane, “Mormonism doesn’t deserve a backlash,” Boston Herald, October 2,
2002.
443
Joe Fitzgerald, “Pols, Unlike Priests, shun the high road,” Boston Herald, October 19,
2002, 4, emphasis added.
444
Elizabeth Beardsley, “Election 2002: Gender’s Wildcard in Bay State race,” Boston
Herald, November 6, 2002.
235
Massachusetts campaigns, but was of much less concern in 2008.
• Another article talked about Romney’s financial ties with the multi-level
marketing industry, which is prominent in Utah, and described the MLM industry in
secretive terms as the “cult of corporate America.”445
• A September column criticized a Romney campaign commercial about his family.
The column said, “Apparently, the Ozzie and Harriet act is intended to humanize Mitt. Or
maybe he’s trying to mitigate the Mormon thing by assuring us that he has only one
wife.”446
• In a humorous column by Margery Eagan, decrying the lack of preparation among
voters on election day, she brought out the plastic stereotype, again: “‘Like an alien,’ said
Sam Duggan, 46, Boston, of Romney. ‘He doesn’t drink. Smoke. Swear. I mean,
creepy.’”447
• Margery Eagan also used something like that in another humor column quoting
“Mittman No. 1,” She wrote,
Referring to Romney’s placid, calm, Mona Lisa-like demeanor
Tuesday in the face of O’Brien's pummeling, he said, “I want a piece of
that action. To be that chilled, that sedated. Like the Thorazine shuffle.
Hey, now that the Catholics are on the ropes, what’s the deal? Do these
Mormons chant? Watch Lawrence Welk? I want to know: What makes
445
Cosmo Macero Jr., “Clip, Save, for November 5, purposes,” Boston Herald October
25, 2002, 39. Macero begins his column talking about how the campaign had had
“undisguised Mormon bashing.”
446
Diane Williamson, “ Mitt’s ad panders to women: Shannon capable of taking the low
road,” Worcester Sunday Telegram, September 29, 2002.
447
Margery Eagan, “Look at the votes candidates are really going after,” Boston Herald,
November 5, 2002.
236
these people not tick.”448
• The Boston Globe brought much of his Mormon faith, including much of his
Mormon mission, into its 4,600-word profile about him.449
• The biggest Mormon-related controversy in the 2002 campaign involved $1
million donation to his alma mater, BYU, in 1998. The gift helped fund a school named
for his father, George, at the university. The gift, reported, again, by the Globe’s Frank
Phillips on page A1, went to “a school with antigay policies aimed at punishing, often by
suspension or expulsion, students who engage in any homosexual activity.”450 Romney
said the donation was for educational purposes, and he said no ability to change
university policy in any event. He refused comment on the religion’s policy toward gays
– cementing, again, the hidden-agenda quality of the construction of Mitt Romney. The
article was followed by a prominent op-ed by a former BYU professor, Scott Abbott, who
said the university did not have full academic freedom.451
Whether his Mormonism was something that he overcame through political skill to
win the election or that the religious environment in Massachusetts in 2002 provided him
a unique opportunity, Romney won. As has been said, Romney’s Mormonism was hardly
mentioned during his time as governor.
448
Margery Eagan, “For some, voting for Mitt could be Olympian effort,” Boston
Herald, October 3, 2002.
449
Stephanie Ebbert, “Race for Governor: Mitt Romney Third in a series of profiles of
the Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates; Romney seeks high office with confidence,
pedigree,” Boston Globe, August 11, 2002.
450
Frank Phillips, “Romney gave to school with antigay rules: Aide defends gift to
Brigham Young,” Boston Globe October 17, 2002.
451
Scott Abbott, “Out of Utah. Does Brigham Young University represent a threat to
Academic Freedom? An ex-professor states his case,” Boston Globe, October 27, 2002.
237
Appendix G: Results from a preliminary Assessment Comparing
Mormonism in the coverage of Mitt Romney’s Campaign with George
Romney’s Campaign in 1968.
Preparation for this study included significant, detailed qualitative and
quantitative analysis of the data, including a preliminary content analysis that looked for
specifics within the content upon which the later study was built. This preliminary study
included analysis of the coverage of George Romney’s 1968 campaign. The story
population of this preliminary study included more than 150 articles in the Mitt Romney
coverage and more than 100 in the George coverage. This preliminary study included
coding that looked for each specific dimension of Mormonism covered in the study and
the words used to describe the faith.
Some observations that might be of interest to researchers that emerged from this
study:
• The word “cult” was used in about a third of the articles that discussed
Mormonism in the Mitt Romney coverage, but never in the George Romney coverage.
• The George Romney coverage had about 40 narrow, specific dimensions of
Mormonism within the coverage while Mitt’s coverage had 60.
• The Mitt Romney coverage focused most frequently on these dimensions of
Mormonism:
Table G.1 : Selected specifics of Mormonism in the coverage of Mitt Romney.
Specific dimension
Are Mormons Christian
question
Church growth
Missionaries
Joseph Smith
Polygamy
Book of Mormon
Percent of stories
40
33
31
30
26
26
238
• The George Romney coverage included many dimensions of Mormonism with
the priesthood restriction comprising a much larger portion of the storyline, not
surprisingly given that Mormons restricted priesthood at the time. Table G.2 shows some
of the specific elements of Mormonism in the coverage of George Romney:
Table G.2: Selected dimensions of Mormonism in the coverage of George Romney.
Specific Dimension
Priesthood restriction
History
Lay leadership
Temples
Polygamy
Percent of Stories
61
48
48
36
24
• The idea that Mormonism may not be Christian merited no coverage during the
George Romney campaign, though it was the most common issue in the coverage of
2008.
Why the difference? It is possible the evangelical opinions were more likely to
make it into the press. Certainly, evangelicals made up a larger voting bloc in
Republican primaries in 2008 than in 1968. It is also possible that conflict – in this case
the conflict between religious denominations – became more of a news value to reporters
in the intervening years. The differences among religion may have become more
newsworthy.
• The foundational nature of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon in Mormon
belief was also far less frequent in the coverage of George Romney than of Mitt. In some
senses, then, the George coverage got less at Mormon fundamentals than did the Mitt
coverage and got fewer fundamentals right.
• As far as polygamy, one way of looking at these data is to suggest that the
proportionality of polygamy remained about the same in the two campaigns. However,
239
George’s relationship to polygamy was more newsworthy. He was born in Mexico to
Mormons who had moved there in an effort to flee from persecutions based upon
polygamy. His Mexican birth was an issue in his Constitutional Fitness for office, and,
therefore, significant. Such suggests that polygamy was more of a reversion to stereotype
in the Mitt campaign than in the George campaign.
• A preliminary favorability scale led to the observation that the Mormonism of
George Romney, while less varied in its coverage, was also less favorable in its treatment
than in the Mitt Romney coverage. Mormonism’s priesthood restriction in the 1960s
likely had something to do with that observation.
• A Pew survey452 was looked at, as discussed in the main body of this study, and
it listed words that came to mind when Americans were asked what they thought of
Mormons. Many of these were then looked for in the coverage of George and Mitt
Romney using word search functions. The first six of these words were favorable – as
described by Pew – and six were unfavorable toward Mormonism. From these 12 words,
word searches were conducted to determine the frequency these words were used in
articles in discussing Mitt Romney’s religion and George Romney’s religion. A quick
analysis of those words suggests that words used to describe George Romney’s
Mormonism were more favorable. Second, the idea that Mormons might be a cult didn’t
register in 1968. Third, George Romney was often seen as devout.
The results of this preliminary study clearly presaged findings of this fuller study
and suggest much for future research about how religious coverage and Mormon
coverage has changed since the middle decades of the 20th century.
452
Pew Forum, “Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism,” September
2007.
240
Appendix H: Historical Presidential Campaigns and Religion.
Article VI of the Constitution specifically forbids a religious test for the
presidency or any other office,453 but voter concerns about the religion of a presidential
candidate date to at least Thomas Jefferson and continue to this day. The history of
religion in presidential campaigns shows how religion influenced presidential politics
significantly and how news coverage was often at the heart of the discourse about a
candidate’s religion. News coverage may even have been potentially influential on how
these religious questions played out. This appendix looks at the history of religion in four
major presidential campaigns: The 1800 campaign, the 1928 campaign, the 1960
campaign and the 1976 campaign.
The 1800 campaign.
In 1796, with the closure of churches by the Jacobins in France, John Adams’
Federalists sought to portray Jefferson in league with them because Jefferson was a deist.
The religious division recurred in the next campaign.454 In 1800, Dutch Reformed
minister William Linn published a pamphlet about Jefferson saying “on account of his
disbelief of the Holy Scripture, and his attempts to discredit them, he ought to be rejected
from the Presidency.”455 Jefferson’s supporters said Adams was a hypocrite.456 Purdue
history professor Frank Lambert argues this debate and Jefferson’s victory were
453
Constitution of the United States, Article VI.
454
Edward J. Larson, “Declarations of Faith,” Time, November 2, 2007, at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1680275,00.html?imw=Y, accessed
November 14, 2007.
455
Frank Lambert, “God—and a religious president … [or] Jefferson and the No
Campaigning for a voter-imposed religious test in 1800,” Journal of Church & State, 39,
No. 4, (Autumn 1997), 769.
456
Larson, “Declarations of Faith.”
241
important in confirming the lack of a religious test in American politics.
The 1928 campaign
The next major test of religion in presidential politics was the watershed 1928
election that pitted New York’s Democratic governor, Al Smith, a Catholic, against
Herbert Hoover. A central player in this story was Atlantic Monthly. According to St.
John’s University’s Michael Hostetler, Ellery Sedgwick, the editor of Atlantic Monthly,
first publicly broached the subject of the “Catholic Question” early in the campaign.457
The ostensible argument against Catholic office holders suggested that faithful Catholics
would face a dual allegiance, putting devotion to the Pope at odds with loyalty to the
country. So, Sedgwick invited an Episcopal lawyer, Charles Marshall, to write an “open
letter” to Smith about the subject. Smith responded.
Smith wished to avoid the religious question altogether, but the publicity about
Catholicism in the early campaign and the Atlantic article provided an opportunity, Smith
hoped, to lay the issue to rest once and for all. Smith’s response was, Hostetler said, a
strong rhetorical defense, including a solid point-by-point rebuttal, asserting that he was
Catholic and a patriot. However, Smith then let the issue lie dormant, save one other
speech late in the campaign.458 Hostetler says the decision to downplay the religion issue
ultimately cost him at the polls:
He portrayed himself as a man of practical action, lacking even the
time to deal with an issue he relegated to the realm of the theoretical and
imaginary. Despite giving in to his advisors’ insistence that he answer
Marshall, Smith never wavered from his "first thought" that a forthright
statement of personal belief, ‘just the faith that is in me,’ was sufficient to
457
Michael J. Hostetler, “Gov. Al Smith Confronts the Catholic Question: The Rhetorical
Legacy of the 1928 Campaign,” Communication Quarterly, 46, No 1, (Winter 1998), 16.
458
Hostetler, 12-23.
242
end a foolish, sinister, and time-wasting discussion.459
Hostetler added,
In terms of his rhetorical effort, Smith may have been his own worst
enemy. In spite of the fact that he and [a co-author] were able to write a
well-received reply to Marshall that served to defuse the religious issue in
the short run, Smith’s rhetoric was ultimately undercut by the tension
between his own unbending estimation of the Catholic Question and the
political necessity of answering it.460
Smith lost in a landslide.461 As was noted elsewhere, Al Smith’s approach to
Catholicism mirrored Mitt Romney’s approach to Mormonism. It seems significant that
both failed.
The 1960 campaign
The next major discussion of the religion of a candidate in American presidential
politics was the campaign of John F. Kennedy, another Irish Catholic. In framing the
coverage of Mitt Romney, a natural comparison to JFK often followed. Romney and
Kennedy were both scions of politically connected families. Both would represent firsts
of their religion upon winning the White House. Both hailed from Massachusetts.
Romney’s first campaign was against Kennedy’s younger brother, and Romney himself
evoked the comparison between the two. Furthermore, Kennedy’s Catholicism plays
prominently in The Making of the President 1960. Hence, Kennedy’s story is important
in the history of political journalism, and the campaign became a natural reference for the
459
Ibid., 23.
460
Ibid., 22.
461
Arguably, Mitt Romney followed the path of Al Smith. He tried to downplay
religious differences. It appears that Romney relied on an analysis of his father’s
campaign – George Romney regularly talked about his private religious practice – that
suggested he should talk about religion less often than his father did. Romney might
have had more success had he looked more to the campaigns of Al Smith contrasted with
JFK. One openly tackled the Catholic question and the other didn’t.
243
story of Mitt Romney and other candidates whose religion might be an issue.462 Hence,
Kennedy’s election requires a longer discussion.
Kennedy’s Catholic faith was a dominant theme of the 1960 presidential
campaign. Kennedy and his advisers felt Al Smith handled the Catholic question
poorly,463 so rather than try to ignore the question as Smith tried to do, they focused on
the Catholic question early and often, culminating in a famous speech in 1960 to the
462
Even as the similarities between Kennedy and Romney seem obvious, the differences
between them are just as important in thinking about the coverage of Romney’s
Mormonism.
First, the Romney campaign is in a different environment. No one of the stature of
Norman Vincent Peale, nor Martin Luther King Sr., nor even the ACLU openly said
Mormons shouldn’t hold office or were a threat to religious freedom – making it harder
for Romney to find a foil to build his campaign upon.
Second, Mormonism is a much smaller religion than Catholicism. While it has grown
substantially since its founding 170 years ago, Romney’s religious background might
have only helped him carry a few Western states on the strength of numbers alone –
whereas Catholics have many communities around the country whose votes helped
Kennedy win.
Third, that Americans have limited understanding of Mormonism makes explication of
religious practice by journalists of extra importance in framing Romney than belief was
in Kennedy’s campaign because Catholicism was widely understood.
Fourth, religious differences in the 1960s were shown less often in the press than today.
Fifth, Romney arguably stands on the other side personally of the modern cultural divide
from Kennedy. Because Kennedy probably wasn’t an especially good Catholic, he was a
more secular candidate. It is impossible to know for sure, but considering his longstanding philandering, and his less-than-pious following of Catholic traditions of mass
and prayer, See Thomas Carty, A Catholic in the White House?: Religion, Politics, and
John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Campaign. (Gordonsville, VA: Palgrave Macmillan,
2004), 4. Carty quotes Jacqueline Kennedy in support of this assertion. One way of
viewing his Catholicism is as one a cultural tradition, not of a deep-seated belief in the
supernatural. Romney, on the other hand, having served as an important lay minister, in
all likelihood, believes the significant Mormon stories of a boy prophet wandering from
the woods with gold plates after talking with an angel.
Furthermore, there have been no Ben Bradlees for roommates of Mitt Romney. So his
conservative, religious culture differs from the majority of the members of the American
news media.
463
Hostetler, “Gov. Al Smith confronts the Catholic question,” 12.
244
Houston Ministerial Association – a classic speech that makes up one of three appendices
in White’s book about the campaign.
Kennedy began laying the groundwork for the issue in 1959 in the press. He
wrote an article for Look magazine in March declaring the importance of the separation
of church and state.464 He spoke at the Al Smith dinner in New York, telling audiences
that he didn’t like the “red scare” tactics of the Catholic Church in dealing with
Communism.465 Both were calculated to blunt criticisms that he would take orders from
Rome – the classic concern of the Protestant establishment.
Indeed, Springfield College’s Thomas Carty said Protestant distrust of
Catholicism had a long history dating back to the earliest days of the Republic, so
responding was important.466 Numerous politicians and groups opposed Kennedy’s
nomination on religious grounds alone:
• Kennedy biographer Robert Dallek records that Harry Truman didn’t think a
Catholic could carry the White House and resigned from his position as a Democratic
Convention delegate:
Although Truman cited Kennedy’s inexperience and not his
religion, suspicion of a Catholic president undergirded his opposition.
Less than a year earlier, Truman had privately argued that no Catholic
could separate church and state issues as president, and in January he had
warned that a Catholic nominee would inevitably attract substantial
opposition on religious grounds.467
• Eleanor Roosevelt was another leading figure who expressed concern about
464
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 72.
465
Ibid., 104.
466
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 12.
467
Ibid., 78.
245
Kennedy. She told an AP reporter in 1958 that she wasn’t sure Kennedy could separate
the church from the state. A series of letters flew back and forth between them.468 (Of
course, Roosevelt and Truman publicly supported Kennedy later in the campaign,
Truman often accusing Nixon and the Republicans as being bigots against religion.)
• Leading figures among African-American preachers were concerned. “On Oct.
18, 1960, the Atlanta Baptist Minister’s Union, including Martin Luther King, Sr.,
specified religious grounds for opposing Kennedy and publicly endorsed Nixon.” King,
Sr., later disavowed his stand, saying, “I’ll vote for him, even though I don’t want a
Catholic,” because of the gracious way Kennedy had treated Corretta Scott King during
one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s imprisonments.469
• The secular group Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of
Church and State, the precursor to Americans United for the Separation of Church and
State, asked many questions. Many members of The American Civil Liberties Union
expressed unease about his stands.470
• Prominent conservative evangelicals, including Dr. Norman Vincent Peale,
went public with their concerns of a Catholic in the White House. Others, including the
Rev. Billy Graham, were privately arguing against Kennedy.471
Kennedy ran in every state primary available in 1960, 13 in all, to show he could
win in states without a large Catholic voice. The first major test came in Wisconsin.
Kennedy ran against Hubert Humphrey, a senator from neighboring Minnesota. White
468
Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963. (Boston: Little,
Brown and Company, 2003), 233-234.
469
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 91-92.
470
Ibid., 68-72.
471
Ibid., 50.
246
records that when Kennedy won in Wisconsin, the returns showed that he did well in
predominantly Catholic areas, but not in Protestant ones. The results hardly showed that
a Catholic could win the White House, even though Kennedy won the primary.472
Wisconsin also illustrated to Kennedy the role the news media was playing in
framing this Catholic issue – of underscoring this nexus between religion, the news media
and presidential politics. An article in the Milwaukee Journal just a few days before the
election showed voters by Democrats, Republicans -- and Catholics. Kennedy himself
tracked how often papers brought the subject up. Bobby Kennedy blasted Walter
Cronkite for raising the question in an interview; staff members said it was only an issue
because the press said it was.473
In many ways, however, it may have been the press that helped turn the tide in
Kennedy’s favor later on – by isolating those against Kennedy, framing his opposition as
bigots. During the West Virginia primary – with its predominantly conservative
Protestant culture – Catholicism became the main focus of the race. White says
Humphrey’s strange decision to contest West Virginia – having lost a neighboring state
like Wisconsin should have forced him out of the race – probably helped catapult
Kennedy to the nomination because it ultimately proved Protestants would vote for
Kennedy.474
Kennedy and his staff had worked for months in West Virginia, but as the primary
drew closer, pollsters and pundits began to see Kennedy’s religion as an issue that would
be difficult to overcome. Only a few reporters, including David Broder, saw Kennedy’s
472
White, The Making of the President 1960, 94-95.
473
Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 251.
474
White, The Making of the President 1960, 97.
247
progress on the ground the way it was: He was quickly becoming popular among
voters.475 Kennedy tackled the religious issue head-on. On local television, with
Franklin Roosevelt Jr. as his interviewer, Kennedy spent nearly 10 minutes on the
religious question.476 His knock-out punch in West Virginia – a 54 percent majority in a
state with few Catholics – not only left Humphrey out of the race, but showed Kennedy
and the rest of the nation that he could win elections as a Catholic in Protestant areas.
White argues that Kennedy defeated Humphrey by turning the question of
religion into a question of bigotry – opposing Kennedy was an act of bigotry. It was a
difficult argument to rebut. The argument was also effective in the general election.477
During the fall, the press often focused mostly on the issue of Norman Vincent Peale’s
opposition to the campaign. Early in the campaign, Kennedy asked Peale and Graham to
sign a public pledge decrying religious bigotry in the campaign. Both refused. In
August, Graham, Peale and other religious leaders met in Switzerland and discussed ways
to counter this perceived threat of a Catholic White House. They decided to set up a
national conference under the auspices of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Graham chose not to attend, but Peale, author of “The Power of Positive Thinking,”
came.478 On Sept. 8, the group met in Washington D.C. The setting provided easy access
for the nation’s press to follow the group’s discussion about “threats to religious
475
Broder, Behind the Front Page, 244-246.
476
White, The Making of the President 1960, 107-108.
477
It was so effective, in fact, that Nixon felt he had been treated unfairly – the Catholic
issue was a sort of dirty trick of the Kennedy camp. Carty believes Nixon’s perception
may have laid the groundwork for Nixon’s callous decisions to rely on his own dirty
tricks in later campaigns. See Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 97.
478
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 55-58.
248
freedom.” Those threats were really a smokescreen to discuss the threat of Catholicism.
To White, Peale “had given respectable leadership to ancient fear and prejudice.”479
479
White, The Making of the President 1960, 259-263. See also appendix, 391-393.
Kennedy’s speech in Houston is a classic piece of rhetoric. He starts by using his
religion as a strength:
I want to emphasize from the outset that I believe that we have far
more critical issues in the 1960 election: the spread of Communist
influence, until it now festers only ninety miles off the coast of Florida …
the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay
their doctor bills, the families forced to give up their farms.
Catholics were perceived as strong on Communism and strong on helping people in need.
So, he wrapped himself in those principles.
He next obliquely accused people of bigotry – making a vote for him, a vote for
tolerance: “the real issues of this campaign have been obscured—perhaps deliberately in
some quarters less responsible than this.”
He then told his answers to questions about Catholicism:
• I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.
• I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor
Jewish – where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public
policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical
source.
• Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will
someday end – where all men and all churches are treated as equal.
• This is the kind of America I fought for in the South Pacific and the kind my
brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we might have a ‘divided
loyalty,’ that we did ‘not believe in liberty’ or that we belonged to a disloyal group.
• I do not speak for my church on public matters—and the church does not speak
for me.
• If the time should ever come—and I do not concede any conflict to be remotely
possible—when my office would require me to either violate my conscience, or violate
the national interest, then I would resign the office, and I hope any other conscientious
public servant would do likewise.
• …nor do I intend to disavow either my views or my church in order to win this
election.
Following the speech, Kennedy answered questions and promised to resign if
there was ever a conflict between his conscience and his duty as President.
249
The attempt at getting positive coverage backfired. News media framed the story
generally negatively. Rather than use the name of the group, the National Conference of
Citizens for Religious Freedom, news media shortened it to the “Peale Group.”480 Time
magazine headlined its coverage with an obvious swipe against Peale as “The Power of
Negative Thinking.”481 Within two days, several organizations responded publicly to the
National Conference to counter what they saw as religious bias. Several newspapers,
including the Philadelphia Inquirer, stopped running Peale’s column, and Peale backed
off the comments the group made.482
On Sept. 12, Kennedy spoke to 600 people at the Rice Hotel in Houston at the
Greater Houston Ministerial Association.483 White said, Kennedy ”described these issues
than any other thinker of his faith and “defined the personal doctrine of a modern
Catholic in a democratic society.”484 White says no one knew the effect of the speech for
sure, but it was played regularly across the country, and it marked the end of much of
open Catholic discussion during the campaign,485 even though some evangelical leaders
continued to bring the issue up.486
480
Carty, 59; Peter Braestrup, “Protestant Unit Wary on Kennedy, Statement by Peale
Group Sees Vatican ‘Pressure’ on Democratic Nominee,” New York Times, September 8,
1960, 1.
481
“The Power of Negative Thinking,” Time, Monday, September 19, 1960, at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826609,00.html, accessed, December
1, 2007. Peale’s most famous work was The Power of Positive Thinking.
482
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 62.
483
White, The Making of the President 1960, 260-263; 391-393.
484
Ibid., 261-262.
485
Ibid.
486
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 63.
250
It became a natural template for Mitt Romney. Romney, however, chose a
different course. While he ultimately delivered a significant speech much like Houston,
he tried to tie himself into a different narrative – of America’s public religion and with
most strains of Christianity. Romney might have had better success in trying the
Kennedy approach, of changing the story into one of bigotry and tying the Mormon
narrative into the country’s story of overcoming, not just relying upon the philosophy of a
public religion, as has been discussed elsewhere. He might have spoken about it more
often.
The issue of Kennedy’s Catholicism is more complicated than the narrative
implies. First, the press – and White -- focused mostly on the attacks on Kennedy from
the political right – the evangelicals. Carty notes there were significant debates with less
coverage -- within liberal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union
and the group that became Americans United for Separation of Church and State, about
their concerns about Catholic influence. ACLU’s leadership publicly questioned
Kennedy’s unwillingness to answer its deliberate questions about his faith and the
separation of Church and state – such questions, they said to critics, didn’t comprise a
religious test but, rather, an exercise of their own free speech rights.487 Such relative
lack of coverage about secular forces opposed to Kennedy suggests a secular bias for the
national news media at the time.488
487
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 72.
488
This was repeated in the Mitt Romney campaign. While most of the press focused on
evangelical distrust of Romney’s Mormonism, most polls showed as strong if not
stronger opposition from the secular side of the political spectrum. In fairness, of course,
Romney’s was only a campaign that focused on Republican primaries – where Christian
conservatives are dominant.
251
Second, while it is true that many see the Kennedy election as a great victory for
tolerance and hope, Carty writes that not everyone thinks so. Carty says that some
authors, including Catholic scholar Mark Massa, have noted that anti-Catholicism
“secularized” Kennedy’s speech and campaign.489 Kennedy answered the questions
about his religion in a secular manner. Kennedy, therefore, may have been forced to
compromise his principles to achieve the presidency. In this view, the speech in Houston
“articulated” America’s “rite of passage” for Catholics and other believers – they may be
forced to compromise their religious principles, and seemingly abandon their faith to
achieve secular goals, or at least pretend to do so.490
Furthermore, the way the conservative evangelicals framed the discussion of
Kennedy has hurt their ability to influence policy in the years since. Carty writes,
Peale and the NCCRF defended religious liberty and pluralism to
justify skepticism toward a Catholic president. When Kennedy
demonstrated full commitment to these principles, many liberal and
conservative Protestants jettisoned the nativist argument that a Catholic
could not preserve Protestant American cultural traditions. Kennedy’s
pledge to maintain rigid distinctions between the sacred and the secular
marginalized meaningful religious discourse in American public life. In
future years, conservative Protestants regretted this political precedent that
required American public figures to endorse the absolute separation of
church and state.491
Romney, therefore, may have been rhetorically boxed in by the terms for election
set by Kennedy’s deeply secular speeches in 1960. To be sure, nothing in Mormon
489
Mark Massa, Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice. (Chestnut
Ridge NY: Crossroad, 2003).
490
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 5.
491
Carty, A Catholic in the White House? 65-66.
252
doctrine forbids separation of church and state, and parts seem to encourage it openly,492
but Kennedy’s absolute separation made it harder for Romney to set a different course.
The 1976 campaign
A fourth significant campaign was that of Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter, who
was the first believing evangelical to serve as president.493 As a moderate to liberal
Democrat, Carter’s deeply held religious views guided a politics that differed from the
conservative politics of most evangelicals. Still, his religion was a deep part of the
campaign. During his campaign, several articles appeared about his sister’s deeply held
mystical beliefs and how she had guided him to a religious conversion.494
And Carter, like Kennedy before him, chose to deliver a speech about his religion
and misperceptions of his faith. Some Jews had expressed opposition to his candidacy as
some Jewish voters worried that Evangelicals didn’t show sufficient support for Israel. In
that June 1976 speech to a Jewish group, Carter talked of an absolute separation of
church and state and of his support for Israel.495 John Siegenthaler writes that his bornagain Christianity was news for a week, but it faded quickly.496
492
See Article 12 of the Church’s Articles of Faith that says the church believes in being
subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates.
493
Other campaigns have had important religious overtones – including Barack Obama’s.
Nixon was a Quaker. The Rev. Pat Robertson, founder of the 700 Club, ran a significant
campaign in 1988 as an evangelical Republican and the Rev. Jesse Jackson had
significant success in the Democratic primary the same year.
494
Martin Gardner, “The Gift of Inner Healing,” New York Times, August 22, 1976, 194;
New York Times, “Poll Finds 34% Share ‘Born Again’ Feeling,” September 26, 1976.
495
Charles Mohr, “Carter Gets an Ovation After Assuring Jews in Jersey on His
Religious Views,” New York Times, June 7, 1976.
496
John Siegenthaler,“Introduction,” in Bridging the Gap: Religion and the News Media,
by John Dart and Jimmy Allen. (Nashville, TN: Freedom Forum’s First Amendment
Center, 2000), at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/bridgingthegap.PDF,
accessed November 30, 2007, 19.
253
Numerous lessons can be drawn for these religious candidates from the historical
record – lessons Romney might have learned. Trying to ignore the issue as Smith did,
didn’t make the issue go away. Second, framing the issue as one of bigotry, as Kennedy
did, could be helpful. And keeping church and state separate is important to discuss. The
historical record therefore suggests that Romney made some tactical mistakes in
approaching his religion. Then again, if Mormonism is an especially unique religion then
there may have been nothing he could have done to solve his Mormon issue in the end.
254
Appendix I: Mormons who Ran for President.
Save for the campaigns of the two Romneys, candidacies of Mormons for
president have been largely forgotten outside Mormon circles. That history deserves
some retelling here because it provides context for the Romney campaign in 2008,
especially the campaign and coverage of his father. Mitt Romney’s is the fifth Mormon
presidential campaign of any significance. The other four major candidates were: Joseph
Smith, George Romney, Morris Udall, and Orrin Hatch. In campaigns for president of
these major campaigns, the press often played a role in framing the candidates and their
Mormon religion.
Joseph Smith’s campaign
The first Mormon to run for president was Joseph Smith, the church’s founder.
Smith was shot and killed by a mob in Illinois before the election, becoming the first
candidate or American president to die that way. The size of the conspiracy that led to
his death is of historical debate, but, according to historians Newell Bringhurst and Craig
Foster, Smith’s campaign was part of the reason for his assassination.497 Regardless, his
death created a chilling type for future campaigns and presidencies.498
Smith’s platform called for the abolition of slavery by paying slave owners from
the sale of federal lands and from the reduction of salaries of governmental officials. He
called for the humane treatment of prisoners, and the release of many, including the
abolition of prison for debtors. He called for a national currency, a national bank and the
497
Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency. (Ann
Arbor, MI: John Whitmer Books, 2008), 45-49.
498
The first two American political martyrs lived within 150 miles of each other, Smith
and Abraham Lincoln.
255
expansion of the United States westward and northward and southward, if Mexico and
Canada concurred. He wished for stronger executive with power to break up mobs and a
smaller, more efficient House of Representatives.499 As with so many other things he
did, his platform received broad national attention, some hugely negative and some
favorable.500
George Romney’s campaign.
The second major Mormon candidacy was George Romney’s candidacy. Because
he was the father of Mitt Romney, his campaign – and its coverage – deserves significant
discussion, especially given that some stories during the campaign of Mitt Romney
suggested that George’s Mormonism was of little consequence.501 Romney, a former
Michigan governor, led Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy in opinion polls in 1966
before fading.502 He is the only Mormon who might have been genuinely considered the
national front-runner. Romney’s campaign ultimately became framed as a joke
candidate – a zealous, unknowable missionary. Scores of stories of the era talked about
how his Mormon faith may have influenced him or portrayed him as a devout Mormon.
More than 120 news stories in the New York Times, the Associated Press, Time,
Newsweek and the Washington Post, mentioned George Romney and his Mormonism in
the years leading up to and during his presidential campaign in 1967 and 1968.
499
Bringhurst and Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency, 269-281.
500
Ibid., 30-32.
501
Charles Krauthammer, “Playing religion card a bad deal,” Chicago Tribune,
December 10, 2007, 21.
502
Associated Press, “President Trails Romney 46% to 54, in Harris Poll,” New York
Times, November 21, 1966, 22.
256
The coverage of George Romney in these national publications illustrates Chiung
Hwang Chen’s assertion that a model minority discourse was used to frame Mormons
during this time, and shows the “golden age” of Mormon coverage was more dynamic
than just unalloyed admiration.503 The framing of George Romney himself was as a
zealous Mormon missionary – hard to know504
In many ways, the coverage was truly golden about Romney’s religious
background. He was often called a “devout” Mormon whose habits included not working
on Sundays and not drinking alcohol, and a man who donated 10 percent of his income to
his church. Many pictures showed him with a smiling, Mormon family. Relatively few
talked about polygamy unless a news story demanded it.505 Many talked about Mormon
habits of clean-living or even how his religion might shape his thinking.506
But George Romney was also seen as an odd zealot with a tendency toward
believing unusual ideas and toward sanctimony. He jogged while playing golf – three
balls at a time, all colored so he could see them in the dark. He effectively stalked his
wife, Lenore, until she consented to marry him. His temple excluded people. His
religion discriminated against blacks, despite his own record on civil rights. Romney
grew from a polygamous background in Mexico, and he wore funny underwear.
503
Chen and Yorgason, “Those Amazing Mormons;” Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint;” and
Shipps, “Surveying the Mormon Images Since 1960.”
504
See Appendix I.
505
See Appendix G. In an earlier iteration of this study, the George Romney coverage
was compared to the Mitt Romney coverage – not including the coverage in the Chicago
Tribune nor the Los Angeles Times. The George Romney coverage referenced polygamy
about the same proportion of times as the Mitt coverage.
506
Hess and Broder, “George Romney: Candidate Whose Problem is Words.”
257
Mormonism was integral to the construction of George Romney, as it was with
his son 40 years later. George Romney was introduced to America as a Mormon before
he ever sought political office. He gained full national prominence in 1959, when Time
magazine put him on the cover for his work as president of American Motors Corporation
and Mormonism was nearly the first thing off of the writer’s pen. Mormonism remained
central to his coverage for the next 10 years, especially when he began running for
president in 1966.507
Here is the first paragraph of that 1959 cover story:
George Wilcken Romney, at 51, is a broad-shouldered, Biblequoting broth of a man who burns brightly with the fire of missionary zeal.
On the Lord’s Day, and whenever else he can find time, he is a fervent
apostle for the Mormon Church, in which he is a high official.508
This was a theme throughout Romney’s early public career. His Mormonism was
seen as a kind of devout, All-American quality. It defined him as a clean-cut, trustworthy
person with great missionary zeal. This early article seemed to set the stage for much of
the framing that came later: For example, it said that Romney said his first act as
president of American Motors was to pray and then set to work.
Says he: “Prayer is not a substitute for work. First we have to do
all we can ourselves to understand a situation. Then when we ask for help,
507
Many writers in the 2008 campaign, David Broder being a notable exception,
suggested that Mormonism was not a significant issue in the coverage of George
Romney. While it is true that his Mormonism received less coverage than the coverage
of his son, it was a major factor in that campaign.
508
“The Dinosaur Hunter,” Time, Monday, April 6, 1959,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,810925,00.html, accessed January 3,
2009.
258
sometimes it is very evident, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes we may well
be helped by not getting a decision.”509
The article, which lacks a byline, points out Romney’s volunteer lay leadership in
Mormon circles. It points out his tithing, the fact that he didn’t drink, smoke or swear.
Time’s description of Mormon organization is roughly accurate, but incorporates a
language different from the way Mormons would describe their organization. So, by
saying that Romney “often travels to other Mormon churches to set up conferences or
deliver sermons,” the writer puts Mormonism in the mainstream of Christianity.
But there were other parts of this story that kept Mormonism outside the
mainstream – keeping them at arms length in the manner of the model minority
discourse. One part was a description of Romney being “the grandson of a Mormon who
sired 30 children by four wives, he was born into a monogamous family in Colonia
Dublan, Mexico.” Another describes Romney’s missionary experiences in Great Britain,
where he teamed up with a socialist for his speeches in Hyde Park – they agreed to heckle
each other to attract crowds. The writer quotes Romney, “I suppose some people thought
I was eccentric. But I found it an illuminating, uplifting experience.”510
This important early article also illustrates a recurring theme of Romney’s
coverage: The missionary zeal. It describes Romney’s obsessive courting of his wife,
Lenore – he followed her in a separate car when she was on a date with other young men
and tried to prevent her kissing other boys during rehearsals for school plays. Then, the
story highlights Romney’s early morning exercise habits, jogging while playing golf with
illuminated golf balls. George is quoted as saying, “Our body is the temple of our spirit.”
Missionary zeal makes George Romney as a Mormon both strange and vaguely
dangerous, but the story is very favorable one for both Romney and Mormonism – that of
a devout, hardworking and trustworthy man with original ideas for a time that needed
509
Ibid.
510
Ibid.
259
them.511
The coverage was also favorable when in 1962, Newsweek introduced George
Romney to America,512 before winning his first campaign for governor of Michigan, as
having “some indefinable alchemy,” making him overnight a serious candidate for the
presidency.513 Then, in the second paragraph, his Mormon devotion again became
paramount. “After a dramatic, 24-hour fast where he prayed for ‘guidance beyond that of
man.’” The article talked in detail about Romney’s handsome good looks, including a jut
jaw, a broken nose, a 5-11 frame, and “rugged, lean features.” Here he was, again, a
handsome Mormon missionary. The article too, spoke of Romney’s golf habits, of his
polygamist grandfather and his mission to Europe (and as a missionary for the Rambler).
It talked of his lay ministry service and the fact he didn’t smoke or drink and only said an
occasional “damn.” The article also brought up two other important issues that became
part of George Romney’s career as a Mormon in politics: the fact that George was born in
Mexico, his parents having lived there because of religious persecution over Mormon
polygamy – making whether he was a natural-born American citizen part of the
campaign, and that the LDS church at the time denied the priesthood to men of African
descent.514
511
This article also illustrates powerfully David Broder’s point about the influence of the
nation’s press on national elections from that era – they were the great suggesters of
whom potential candidates should be. Romney is mentioned as presidential timber – this
is before he has even run for governor – in this article, a full nine years before the 1968
election.
512
“Dark Horse, Off and Running,” Newsweek, February 19, 1962, 23-28.
513
Newsweek here compares Romney with Woodrow Wilson and Wendall Wilkie as
political figures who jumped onto the stage. So, just as Mitt Romney was often
compared with JFK, George Romney’s comparison was Wendall Wilkie, in this article at
least.
514
The priesthood issue was evidently first brought up by the AFL-CIO’s Michigan
leadership, according to Newsweek. They also argued that Romney was too good to be
true. Indeed, the AFL-CIO published a pamphlet called Who is the real George Romney?
This pamphlet lays out Romney’s statements about certain issues and contrasts them with
his supposed actions with the clear intent to show that Romney’s actions don’t match his
260
Indeed, the writing of this early period of George Romney’s career was so
favorable that a reader might assume the coverage of Mormonism of George Romney to
be much more favorable than the Mormonism coverage of Mitt Romney. But, as it
turned out, the George coverage might be seen as more unfavorable. About two in three
George Romney stories of this period where his Mormonism is a central theme, the tone
was negative.515
Perhaps the most important stories – and potential influences on the coverage516 -about Mormonism during this period comprised a three-part series in New York Times by
Wallace Turner in 1965. In this three-part account, Romney is only mentioned obliquely.
Turner’s detailed account of Mormonism started with discussing that the growing faith
was entering a time of internal dissent from liberals worried about the church’s
priesthood restriction and about the growing strength of conservatives within the faith,
led by Ezra Taft Benson.517
Turner framed Mormonism as an authoritarian faith. His lead: “SALT
LAKE CITY – The great socio – economic – theocratic organization that built
this city has entered a period of ferment.”
words – that he is a hypocrite. This was significant because this line of attack became a
dominant way to attack Mitt Romney in the 2008 campaign. For whatever reason, this
line of attack didn’t resonate with George Romney’s coverage of Mormonism.
515
This came from a preliminary study of Mormonism and is my systematic, qualitative
assessment of the relative tone of the articles. It was not subject to intercoder reliability.
516
The influence of this series is shown by David Broder. In his book about the 1968
campaign, The Republican Establishment, Broder and Stephen Hess cite Turner’s work
on Mormonism as their background on Mormonism for their discussion of the George
Romney campaign.
517
Wallace Turner, “Mormons Gain Despite Tensions,” New York Times, December 27,
1965, 1.
261
He later describes Mormonism as though he is an anthropologist or as a botanist
evaluating a specimen under glass. He wrote:
What is a Mormon?
He is two things – a member of a religious denomination, and a
member of one of the most unusual, most tightly knit organizations in
American life, one that impinges on every facet of his life.
His story continues in that vein – how a Mormon “He” does this or “He” does
that. To Turner, Brigham Young is “blunt and earthy” and an “exceptionally shrewd
man.” He also talked about how “lines of control radiate” from Salt Lake City. Turner’s
specific descriptions of doctrine were largely accurate and broad, touching on eternal
marriage and education and tithing. But the only lay people discussed specifically are
those disaffected by the faith and the only lay people quoted by name are Gerald and
Sandra Tanner, whose work in subsequent years were as among the most famous antiMormon writers in Utah. The article is accompanied by a sidebar about polygamy, and
two Stanford students were mentioned in the main article beginning to publish an
academic journal called Dialogue, which Turner viewed as an outlet for liberal and
dissatisfied Mormons. The second and third articles in the series were about the vastness
of Mormon business holdings and about the Mormon doctrine denying men of African
descent the priesthood.
Time magazine’s articles about Mormonism in the 1960s seem to illustrate the
idea that Mormons were “model minorities.” A 1962 article about the church – and
Romney’s prospects – also talked about the church’s denial of men of African descent the
priesthood:
Before he announced last month that he would run as a Republican
candidate in Michigan’s 1962 gubernatorial race. George Romney fasted
262
and prayed for 24 hours for divine guidance. His act of faith called
attention to the fact that Romney, a remarkably successful and personable
industrialist and community leader, is also a devout member of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being a Mormon has never been a
political liability in the past (in Utah, it is virtually a political
requirement), and there was no reason to believe that it would hurt
Romney in Michigan. But George Romney is being touted as a promising
contender for the 1964 G.O.P. presidential nomination—and on the
national scene his religion might stir up a real controversy, just as John F.
Kennedy’s Catholicism did in 1960. Around Michigan last week the word
was being spread that the Mormon Church looks on Negroes as an inferior
race, cursed by God.518
Then, the article brought up the issue of Romney’s supposed sanctimony:
The Real Issue. Romney’s Mormonism became an open issue in
Michigan when he fasted and prayed before announcing for the
governorship. Cried Gus Scholle, president of the Michigan A.F.L.-C.I.O.
“This business of trying to put on an act of having a pipeline to God in
order to become Governor of Michigan is about the greatest anticlimax to
a phony stunt that I’ve ever seen.”519
In 1963, Time again brought up the issue of priesthood restriction. The tone
brought into question central tenants of faith – prophetic leadership and revelation. The
article implied that Mormon leadership was bigoted, suggesting that revelation was not
really part of Mormon practice or belief in the 1960s:
By these doctrines, Mormons have four sources of divine truth: the
Bible, the ‘continuous revelation’ granted to Smith and his successors, and
Smith’s two pseudo-Biblical works, The Book of Mormon and The Pearl
of Great Price. Since he became Prophet in 1951, McKay has never
admitted that God spoke to him. Few Mormons have any hope that
revelations on the Negro would come to McKay’s probable successor,
President Joseph L. Smith, 86, a stern, old- fangled moralist (and
grandnephew of the Founder) who believes that “darkies are wonderful
518
“The Mormon Issue,” Time magazine, March 2, 1962, at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939876,00.html, accessed February
26, 2009.
519
Ibid.
263
people.”520
By April 1967, when the church was again the topic of a Time article, the
magazine had sent a writer to cover the church’s annual conference in Salt Lake City.
The conclusion illustrates the problem of the model minority. To truly be part of the
“mainstream,” Mormonism needed to change. The conclusion was:
Outwardly secure and successful, the unique religion created by
Joseph Smith and carried to Utah by Brigham Young is nonetheless at a
testing time. Much as in the churches of mainstream Christianity,
Mormonism is being prodded out of its old ways by a new generation of
believers who temper loyalty to the faith with a conviction that its
doctrines need updating.521
The article then went further, suggesting what the church had to do to meet
mainstream acceptance:
Latter-Day Saints can now question some of the church’s peculiar
disciplines without being stigmatized by their neighbors. Although the
U.S. Surgeon General’s report on smoking confirmed the Mormon
conviction that tobacco is an evil, there is widespread feeling that the
church should relax its ban on coffee and tea. “A lot of good Mormons
drink coffee now,” says one Utah saint. “The church should not make its
prohibition a commandment.” Still another quaint tradition is the
Mormons’ use of ‘temple garments’—a torso-covering form of
underclothing signifying their covenant with the Lord—which devout
believers, both women and men, are expected to wear.522
On the other hand, another article in Time shows how the model minority discourse
serves to validate the status quo. In 1966, an article speculated on America’s willingness
520
“The Negro Question,” Time, Friday, October, 2, 1963, at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873781,00.html, accessed February
26, 2009, emphasis added.
521
“Prosperity and Protest,” Time, Friday April 14, 1967, at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836990,00.html, accessed February
26, 2009.
522
Ibid.
264
to not only accept a Catholic president in John Kennedy, but a Mormon president
(George Romney) and a potential Jewish vice president (New York Sen. Jacob Javits.)
The Mormonism of Romney here serves to validate a status quo and American ideal by
showing how accepted he was by the mainstream.523 Beyond these important articles
about Mormonism, Romney’s religion was a large part of much of the coverage –
figuring often into day-to-day routine during the campaign era. Some examples:
• Before he became a declared candidate, Romney toured Western states with a
large press entourage – a trip where he gained his reputation as a person not careful with
words. Romney spoke in a Mormon chapel in Anchorage about racial injustice.524 He
visited Salt Lake City and Rexburg, Idaho, a boyhood home – and a Mormon stronghold,
home of then Ricks College, what became BYU-Idaho.525
• In Salt Lake City on the same trip, members of the Salt Lake Ministerial society
asked him about church policy regarding African-Americans and the priesthood.
Romney was unable to distance himself sufficiently from the church, some reporters said.
Explicit comparison to the Kennedy campaign was made, but Romney was shown as
having failed while JFK succeeded.526
• Most historians argue that Romney’s campaign imploded when he made his
famous “brainwashing” argument to a Michigan television personality in late summer
523
“A Mormon-Jewish Ticket.” Time, Friday, May 13, 1966, at,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835482,00.html, accessed February
27, 2009.
524
Warren Weaver, “Romney Assails Racial Injustice.” New York Times, February 20,
1967, 30.
525
“Romantic Interlude.” Newsweek, March 6, 1967, 34-37.
526
Ibid.; Warren Weaver, “Romney Denies Mormon Policy Curbs His Civil Rights
Efforts.” New York Times, February 21, 1967; See also, David Broder, “Clergy hear
Romney on Church Bias.” Washington Post Times-Herald, February 21, 1967, A1.
265
1967. No news writer explicitly expanded the comparison to his belief in his Mormon
faith, but one New York Times reporter, attending church conference in the fall of 1967,
tied brainwashing into the idea of a backward church leading its members the wrong way
by quoting one member, a wife of a bishop, saying “the rest of us, we’ve all been
brainwashed.” 527
• In late April 1967, Romney visited Morehouse College in Atlanta. Again,
Romney faced questions about his faith’s views on integration. He responded by talking
about some church beliefs that supported integration, but refused to fully distance himself
from the faith. A Washington Post reporter chose this speech for a comparison to
Kennedy, still another speech arguing that he failed. He noted that an adviser looked
down at the floor while Romney spoke.528
• In the summer of 1967, the Summer of Love in San Francisco, Romney visited
Golden Gate Park and visited the diggers giving out free food there. Romney joined them
and reporters noted the contrast between conservative Romney and those with whom he
spoke. One hippie asked him if the country should legalize Pot. The article said
Romney, a Mormon, told his audience that he didn’t believe in the use of tobacco,
alcohol or other drugs, and, therefore, said no.529
• When Romney became the first candidate to disclose his income tax return – he
did so to a Look magazine reporter in late 1967 -- reporters noted his tithing to the
527
Robert Windeler, “Mormon leaders heard by 25,000.” New York Times, October 2,
1967, 52.
528
Andrew Glass, “Romney cites own racial creed in response to Mormon Doctrine.”
Washington Post Time Herald, May 1, 1967, A1.
529
United Press International, “Romney, Flower Children Dine Out in Hippieland,” San
Mateo Times, Saturday, September 23, 1967, 3.
266
Mormon church.530
• After his brainwashing remark, Romney went on a tour of inner cities, trying to
get a sense of the problems facing the country and, perhaps, to draw attention away from
his famous line. Instead, the coverage showed Romney confronted by activists who
criticized his faith over its stand on priesthood.531 Romney was portrayed – as his religion
had been – as an anachronism, out of touch with the American mainstream, even an
object of backhanded admiration for his “square” views. An anecdote from Newsweek’s
coverage of his inner city tour shows how the framing of the earnest evangelist had
changed:
Even his squareness was an asset. On a Detroit street, he delivered a
homily about the value of education to the perfect caricature of a teenage
delinquent. The boy responded with evident, overblown sarcasm, ‘Guv,
you gotta git me off the streets and into them classrooms, cause, man, I
needs my education.’ Everyone in hearing distance laughed, but Romney
took him seriously and praised his attitude. At that, the boy looked
befuddled and then almost ashamed of himself.532
Newsweek called the trip a
… departure from any campaign trip ever taken by a major political
candidate. There were no major crowds and Romney went to dangerous
neighborhoods, but seeing as how the trip followed his brainwashing
gaffe, the storyline was that “The funeral arrangements were made, the
dirges were sung … That was the message everyone seemed to be getting
last week-everyone, that is, except the corpse.533
530
Associated Press, “Romney lists $3 million income, much to charity,” The Fresno
Bee, Sunday, November 26, 1967, 8-A. (This story was accessed through the database
newspaperarchive.com. In the download, the page number is obscured in a .pdf file. It
may also be 16-A or 10-A or something similar.)
531
William Chapman, “Romney’s Mormon Religion Continues to Draw Criticism.”
Washington Post, Times-Herald, September 26, 1967, A2.
532
“The Bell Tolls for a Galloping Ghost,” Newsweek, September 25, 1967, p. 27-28.
533
Ibid.
267
• An important subtext of the campaign was whether Romney was a natural-born
citizen. He was born in Mexico – the child of parents who left the country because of
persecution tied into Mormon polygamy. Romney and his family always considered
themselves American, but some writers and legal scholars thought that Romney didn’t
meet the Constitution’s requirement for being president.534
• During the campaign, Romney’s son, Scott, was married in the Salt Lake
Mormon Temple. Many articles talked about it at length, including one from Time
magazine that talked in detail about Mormon temple rituals and traditions.535
• Mitt Romney’s mission to France was mentioned in the coverage of his father
during that era, including Mitt’s traffic accident where he nearly died and the wife of his
mission president did.536
• David Broder and Stephen Hess made Mormonism central to the ideas and
thoughts of the campaign of George Romney. The pair did the most extensive preview of
the Republican party in 1968, their book on the Republican establishment, which the
Washington Post excerpted.
As shown in an early portion of this study, they wrote: “Economic Romneyism
probably is an amalgam of his Mormon experience (where the church organization –
wards and stakes – grows by addition and subtraction [and his experience in
534
David Broder, “Law Paper Says Foreign Birth Bars Romney.” Washington Post
Times-Herald, October 15, 1967, A4.; Irving Brant, “Romney a ‘Natural Born’ American
by Act of Parliament.” Washington Post Times-Herald, November 19, 1967, B3.
535
“For Time & Eternity,” Time, September 1, 1967, at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837252,00.html, accessed March 2,
2009.
536
“Romney’s Son involved in Car Tragedy,” UPI, Oakland Tribune, June 17, 1978.
268
business.]”537
What they wrote again demonstrated that the campaign of George Romney was, in
fact, fundamentally focused on Mormonism, that the coverage showed this tension in the
discourse between mainstream and out-of-the-mainstream, and that the candidate was
framed as a zealous missionary:
What is this church that produced him? What is there in it that evokes
the peculiar sort of energetic evangelism, the righteousness and selfrighteousness that underlie Romney’s unique political appeal and at the
same time cause so many of his political problems?
More than being merely American, Mormon doctrine is patriotically
American, reflecting a kind of romantic nationalism peculiar to the 19th
century. As a devout Mormon, Romney firmly believes that both church
and country have a manifest destiny. Addressing a 1966 Lincoln Day
dinner in Boston, he said: “I believe that the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution are divinely-inspired documents, written by men
especially raised up by their Creator for that purpose. I believe God has
made and presented to us a nation for a purpose—to bring freedom to all
the people of the world.” This is purest Mormon teaching … but exotic
fare for the average American Republican contributor.
…Thus, a paradox in Romney turns out to be a paradox in
Mormonism itself. These people whose beliefs and practices are so
idiosyncratic, and who actually took arms against the United States
Government, are also as hyper-American as a rodeo or county fair.538
When the campaign concluded, it was back to the beginning for the coverage. Just
as Romney started his national career as an evangelist, the concluding parts of the story
of his campaign returned to the zealous, determined missionary theme. Ward Just of the
Washington Post, reported that Romney faced laughter along the campaign trail in New
Hampshire, as he tried to re-invigorate his sagging campaign:
It is said that George Romney has one speed. It is a speed of about
the velocity and excitement of a Mack truck, with all that implies: a solid,
durable, dependable vehicle for moving from A to B. But it is still one
537
Hess and Broder, “George Romney: Candidate Whose Problem is Words.”
538
Ibid.
269
speed. It behaves the same for a suburban matron or … for the smartaleck preppies of Exeter Academy.539
Newsweek’s coverage of the last parts of his campaign portrayed a man walking in
the cold snows of New Hampshire, alone and determined – the “evangelist from
Michigan.”540
In another piece, the magazine described Romney as having proper New England
virtues: fortitude, determination and political innocence. As for determination, “he tried
his hand at dancing, then at bowling in the unfamiliar candle-pin style, and didn’t give up
until he had knocked down all ten pins—with 34 balls.”541
(The mission theme in Mitt Romney was also made explicit. At least one
important article headlined its cover story with “Mitt’s Mission.”542 Many publications
ran detailed articles discussing Romney’s mission to France, using it for its potential to
539
Ward Just, “Snickering Along the Primary Trail,” Washington Post, Times-Herald,
January 16, 1968, A14.
540
“I’m an Underdog.” Newsweek, January 22, 1968, 21. This article mentions intriguing
early campaign software including direct mail that Romney’s staff perfected, evidently a
first for what would become common campaign practice. So much of Romney’s
campaign is fascinating in many ways, worthy of more study because he seems to
presage much in modern campaigns. His stumbles seem silly mistakes in front of a
watching press corps, but his campaign pre-figured the necessity of modern campaign
packaging. He met with individuals where they lived, not in staged photo-ops. He
released his tax forms before anyone else. He engaged in dialogue with his supporters
and opponents – seemingly admirable qualities. The contrast to Romney’s lack of
packaging was, of course, Richard Nixon in Joe McGinness’s book on a cynical
campaign, “The Selling of the President, 1968.” Perhaps the news media had the
packaged candidate in Nixon yet framed the more earnest one as less qualified and
stupid. Joe McGinness, The Selling of the President 1968. (New York: Penguin Books,
1988 edition).
541
“Republicans: Bottoming Out.” Newsweek, January 29, 1968, 25.
542
Jonathan Darman and Lisa Miller, Lisa. “Mitt’s Mission: Voters can’t connect with a
candidate they feel they don’t know. Mitt Romney has to decide how much he wants to
share,” Newsweek, October 8, 2007.
270
show who he is as a person. The Boston Globe and New York Times ran detailed stories
and photos including excerpts of personal letters. The mission was important in
examining the character of Mitt Romney and explaining him. Many news accounts told
the powerful story of Romney’s traffic accident where French police listed him as dead
and the wife of his mission president was killed. Romney’s mission coverage was often
mixed, including explanations of draft deferments, of his youthful quirks and of antiAmerican sentiment during the Viet Nam war.)
Ward Just’s post-mortem on the George Romney campaign in the Washington Post
cemented the theme with this headline: “Man With a Mission Yields to Reality.”543 In his
lead, Just said Romney’s withdrawal was “surprising.” Romney was “a Mormon with
boundless determination and conviction of the righteousness of his cause—as a
sympathetic aide to Richard M. Nixon put it—[to withdraw] ‘goes completely against his
character.’”544 Just said Romney had been “bedeviled by a press that didn’t understand
him.” Just also shared stories of laughter directed toward Romney along the campaign
trail, quoting an observer who called Romney a “joke candidate” in the end.
Evan as Just spoke of Romney’s doggedness in campaigning, such that he became a
figure of admiration, the laughter turned him into a figure of scorn, a sort of zealous Wile
E. Coyote not knowing when to stop his allusive quest for roadrunner. Just quoted a
Romney operative: “First they robbed him of his brains, then finally they robbed him of
his humanity.”545
543
Ward Just, “Man With a Mission Yields to Reality.” Washington Post, Times-Herald,
February 29, 1968, A1.
544
Ibid.
545
Ibid.
271
Morris Udall’s campaign
The third Mormon to run seriously for president was Arizona Congressman
Morris Udall in 1976. Udall said he disavowed his religion at a young age because of its
position then that men of African descent could not yet receive the priesthood. Udall
became the last liberal competition for the Democratic nomination to Carter.
In an ironic twist near the end of the campaign, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young,
an African-American, encouraged Democrats to vote against Udall because of the faith of
his birth. Young told a group of black ministers, as was widely reported: that they not
vote for “a man from Arizona, whose church won’t even let you in the back door.”546
That Michigan primary effectively ended Udall’s campaign and one report suggested that
Udall’s loss could be attributed in part to the mayor’s endorsement of Carter.547
Orrin Hatch’s campaign.
The fourth Mormon to make a major run for president was Orrin Hatch, the Utah
senator, who had little success in generating enthusiasm and left the race early in 2000
during George W. Bush’s road to the presidency. Historians Bringhurst and Foster write
that Hatch’s unsuccessful campaign brought Mormonism into the campaign “as a
significant, sustained issue.”548
They said part of the reason was the political climate of the 2000 Republican
campaign that focused on the role of religious voters, but also because of Hatch’s use of
Mormons in his campaign and his reference to the supposed “White Horse Prophecy.” In
546
“Udall asks apology by Detroit Mayor,” New York Times, May 16, 1976, 31.
547
Robert Reinhold, “Polls Links Udall Strength to Low Vote in Michigan,” New York
Times, May 20, 1976, 1.
548
Bringhurst and Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency, 118.
272
a Salt Lake City radio interview, Hatch said the “constitution literally is hanging by a
thread,” a direct quote from this repudiated prophecy, attributed only loosely to Joseph
Smith, and one that says the Latter-day Saints will help save the Constitution. When
Hatch was asked about his statement about whether he might be the one to save the
Constitution, Hatch replied that Mormon doctrine didn’t determine his stances and
ideas.549
Fringe candidacies.
Five Mormons made quixotic attempts for the presidency in the 20th Century.
None had any serious chance of winning but all had some influence:
• Parley Christensen was the nominee of the socialist Farmer Workers Party in
1920, but his party drew fewer votes than Eugene V. Debs did campaigning as a socialist
from his Atlanta prison cell. Christiansen was born into a Mormon family but was never
baptized a member.550
• Sonia Johnson, who was excommunicated from the church for the vocal,
contentious way she criticized the church’s stand on the Equal Rights Amendment, ran as
a liberal for Barry Commoner’s short-lived Citizens Party in 1984. Bringhurst and Foster
say Johnson was the first female candidate to appear on a ballot in the United States for
president in more than a century.551
• Eldridge Cleaver, one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party, ran for president
549
Ibid., 115-118. The White Horse prophecy is apocryphal and implies that one
Mormon would ride up to save the Constitution. Most scholars of Mormonism hold this
prophecy not to be Smith’s actual words. Bringhurst and Foster have an excellent
appendix discussing this issue.
550
Bringhurst and Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency, 123-132.
551
Ibid., 184-207.
273
in 1968 as the nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party. Cleaver later became a member
of the Church.552
• Bo Gritz, a former Marine officer who was the model for the movie icon
Rambo, the most highly-decorated soldier in Vietnam, ran for president after he joined
the Mormon Church. He ran as an extreme conservative in 1992 for the Populist Party.
Gritz received two percent of the vote in Idaho and Utah. His work led him to help
negotiate an end to the standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1994. Gritz eventually founded
two millenarian and paramilitary compounds where he taught military principles and
became associated with the Christian Identity movement – the white identity movement.
Gritz’ increasingly radical views caused the Church to call on its membership to not
become involved in the types of groups Gritz advocated. He left the Mormon faith,
continuing his work in extreme right-wing politics and associations. Some of Gritz’
followers were excommunicated, perhaps hundreds of them, for their embrace of these
right-wing organizations in what Bringhurst and Foster called a purge. At least one
follower set up a new Mormon faith.553
• Arguably the most influential Mormon politician – and undeclared candidate for
the presidency in the last half of the 20th century was Ezra Taft Benson, a man who
became a president of the church. He was the first Latter-day Saint to serve in the
Cabinet, when Benson, then one of 12 Mormon apostles, was secretary of agriculture for
President Dwight Eisenhower. During his time in the cabinet, Benson became associated
with the John Birch Society, though he never joined, the anti-Communist association
named for a Christian missionary killed by Communists in China after World War II. As
552
Ibid., 162-183.
553
Ibid., 223-224.
274
secretary of agriculture, Benson had a conversation with Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev
that deeply influenced Benson. Khurschev reportedly told Benson, “Americans are so
gullible. They are in the process of being fed small bits of socialism and will one day
awaken to find themselves living under a totalitarian order.”554
At times, Benson criticized the Civil Rights movement for being a front for
Communism. His views drew attention to Mormons’ exclusion of blacks to its
priesthood and drew greater controversy to the church. Benson was a staunch opponent
of the ERA and a strong supporter of Ronald Reagan. As a member of the Church’s
governing 12 apostles and eventually one of only 16 church presidents, and the only one
besides Smith with presidential aspirations, Benson’s writings and influence had much to
do with the church membership’s generally conservative political views in the last half of
the 20th Century.555
In 1968, a group of conservative business leaders, calling themselves the
committee of ’76, worked to draft Benson for the presidential nomination, but it failed to
gain much influence.556 Later, Alabama governor George Wallace invited Benson to
Montgomery to discuss political views. Benson told associates he was impressed with
Wallace’s views on the Constitution. Benson might have accepted Wallace’ invitation to
run as his vice presidential nominee, but Benson twice declined, following the advice of
church president David O. McKay, who warned Benson that Wallace’ views on
segregation might be harmful to the church and to Benson.557
554
Ibid., 142.
555
Ibid., 141-161.
556
Ibid., 147-152.
557
Ibid., 152-156. In 1986, marking the 200th anniversary of the Constitution, Benson
275
Wallace selected former Air Force general Curtis LeMay as his running mate.
Bringhurst and Foster conclude about these Mormon candidates generally:
The diversity of candidates, not just in gender and race, but in
party affiliation and political ideologies, belies the image of the Mormon
Church as a monolithic institution of dutiful followers walking in lockstep
to the dictates of their prophet-president and other leaders.558
gave an important speech to more the 20,000 students at Brigham Young University
called, The Constitution, a Heavenly Banner. His speech captures what Broder calls the
hyper-patriotism of Latter-day Saints, who believe God preserved the American continent
for special purposes. The 1986 speech is one reason Benson might be said to be the
leading conservative Mormon politician. The actions he advocates are good citizenship –
voting, reading, speaking out – but the tone is strong:
We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith
when he said:
‘Even this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces
and tumbling to the ground and when the constitution is upon the brink of
ruin this people will be the Staff up[on] which the Nation shall lean and
they shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of destruction.’”
He continued, instructing church members to be good citizens by understanding
the Constitution, and by being involved in the political process. He concluded:
I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred
document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has
placed his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land. I testify that
the God of heaven sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the foundation of
this government, and he has sent other choice spirits–even you who hear
my words this day–to preserve it.
We, the blessed beneficiaries, face difficult days in this beloved
land, ‘a land which is choice above all other lands’ (Ether 2:10). It may
also cost us blood before we are through. It is my conviction, however,
that when the Lord comes, the Stars and Stripes will be floating on the
breeze over this people. May it be so, and may God give us the faith and
the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives and
fortunes that we might be free. (See Ezra Taft Benson, “The Constitution:
A Heavenly Banner,” speech delivered at BYU, September 16, 1986,
under Speeches, http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6985,
accessed February 2, 2010. emphasis added.
558
Bringhurst and Foster, The Mormon Quest for the Presidency, 263.
276
Appendix J: The Historical Relationship between Mormons and the
News Media.
The relationship between the Mormons and the press has been studied for many
years. According to BYU’s Sherry Baker and UNLV’s Daniel Stout, more than 200
studies of various sorts have looked at the relationship of the media with Mormonism.
Many are histories or biographies. Others are uses and gratifications studies. Many look
at non-journalistic media. Only a few have looked at major news outlets coverage of
Mormonism.559 In sum, Mormonism’s relationship with the press has often been painful
but improved in the 20th century. This history can be divided into five general periods:
The Joseph Smith era, the Brigham Young and polygamy era, the post-polygamy, early
20th century era; the “Golden Age” era and the post-golden or modern era.560
The Joseph Smith era.
Press coverage came early and often for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Much of it was deeply negative. Former Columbia historian Richard Bushman
says coverage at the time of the church’s founding made Joseph Smith “a minor national
figure.”561 One of the earliest interactions happened at the print shop where Joseph Smith
printed The Book of Mormon, the church’s founding scripture.
Abner Cole, using the pseudonym Obediah Dogberry, began to publish excerpts
of the Book of Mormon in his Palmyra Reflector. The paper was printed in the same print
559
Sherry Baker and Daniel Stout. “Mormons and the Media, 1898-2003, A Selected,
Annotated and Indexed Bibliography (with Suggestions for Future Research).” BYU
Studies, 42, no. 3 & 4, (2003), 124-181.
560
These are derived from other literature, especially Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” but
also reflect my terminology.
561
Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, A Cultural Biography of
Mormonism’s Founder. New York: Knopf, 2005, 82.
277
shop as the Book of Mormon and printers had provided – leaked -- proofs to Cole.
Joseph Smith confronted Cole, who in turn suggested they fight. Smith refused but
asserted his copyright and staved off the continued printing of excerpts through
arbitration. Cole’s response was the “Book of Pukei,” a satiric version of the Book of
Mormon that he published in the Reflector, and his writings called the church leader “that
spindle shanked ignoramus JO SMITH.” 562 Similarly, a headline in a nearby Rochester
newspaper said, simply, “Blasphemy.” Some writers report that Joseph Smith’s claims of
having found a golden book made it into the papers months or years before he ultimately
published The Book of Mormon.563
In 1831, James Gordon Bennett traveled up the Erie Canal as part of other
research and met with several non-Mormons while telling the story of Mormonism in a
feature story for his New York Courier and Esquire. Bennett said the small faith, whose
followers numbered less than a few hundred, was already well known. Brigham Young
had yet to join:
You have heard of MORMONISM – who has not? Paragraph has
followed paragraph in the newspapers, recording the movements, detailing
their opinions and surprising distant readers with the traits of a singularly
new religious sect, which had it origin in this state.564
562
Richard Lyman Bushman, “The Book of Mormon and its critics,” in Believing
History, Latter-day Saint Essays, ed. Reid L. Neilson & Jed Woodworth, 107-142, (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 110; Russell Rich, “The Dogberry Papers and
The Book of Mormon,” BYU Studies, 10:3 (1970), 315-320.
563
“Uncle Dale’s Readings in Early Mormon History,” Under Painesville Telegraph,
http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/OH/painetel.htm, accessed April 6, 2010.
564
Bennett, James Gordon, “Mormonism – Religious Fanaticism – Church and state
party,” Morning Courier and Enquirer, August 31, 1831, as cited in Leonard Arrington,
“James Gordon Bennett’s 1831 Report on ‘the Mormonites,” BYU Studies, 10: vol 3,
1970, 1-10, at http://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFLibrary/10.3Arrington.pdf, accessed
February 3, 2010, 3
278
Celebrated Mormon historian Leonard J. Arrington said Bennett’s detailed efforts
to write on Mormonism was emblematic of why he became the leading editor of the
Penny Press era with his detailed and focused writing and how the article was one of the
earliest features on the faith. Bennett described the faith as “the latest device of roguery,
ingenuity, ignorance and religious excitement combined.”565 He added, “It is religion
running into madness by zealots and hypocrites.” Joseph Smith was “a careless, indolent,
idle, and shiftless fellow.”566
In fairness to Bennett, such hyperbole was typical of the Penny Press era, and
Arrington and others have pointed out that Bennett was among the most balanced of the
writers covering the church during its early years. The New York Herald published
excerpts of The Book of Abraham, which today makes up part of the church’s scripture,
The Pearl of Great Price, and other LDS writings.567 It also noted with compassion the
persecution the Mormons faced. Smith was so grateful for the coverage that he made
editor Bennett an honorary general of the large, local militia, the Nauvoo Legion in
1841.568 In fact, Bennett wrote hundreds of stories about Mormonism. He noted in detail
Smith’s platform for president. He noted Smith’s murder in Illinois, following closely
from New York the stories in Illinois of his arrest and the swirling politics around him.
.
565
Chen, Mormon and Asian American Model Minority Discourses in News and Popular
Magazines, 34-35, citing Leonard Arrington, “James Gordon Bennett’s 1831 Report on
‘the Mormonites,” BYU Studies, 10, no. 3, (1970): 1-10, at
http://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFLibrary/10.3Arrington.pdf, accessed February 3, 2010.
566
Arrington, “James Gordon Bennett’s Report on ‘The Mormonites,’” 2.
567
History of the Church, vol. 5, 11.
568
Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 99
279
As the faith’s followers moved from New York to Ohio in the early 1830s, similar
attacks followed. The Book of Mormon was, early reports indicated, of “infamous and
blasphemous character.” The Painesville Telegraph, noted that “Time will discover in it
either something of vast importance to man, or a deep laid plan to deceive many.”569
In 1834, the Painesville Telegraph helped an excommunicated Mormon, Dr.
Philastus Hurlbut, publish affidavits alleging poor character among the Smith family.
The expose, Mormonism Unveiled, remained controversial for decades.570 An article in
the Sangamo Journal – a leading newspaper in the state capitol -- in 1842 from John C.
Bennett, another dissenter, led to much anti-Mormon writing.
Just as it was at the beginning of his career, the press was important at the end of
Joseph Smith’s life. The Anti-Mormons – there was a political party called the AntiMormons -- relied on the power of their press to organize opposition to Joseph Smith and
Mormonism through Thomas Sharp’s Warsaw Signal newspaper. The Mormons
responded through the Nauvoo Neighbor newspaper, under the editorship of John Taylor.
The newspapers were sent to newspapers around the country and numerous editors
commented regularly on the swirling politics of the Mormon question in Illinois in 1844
as described by these two dueling editors.
By this time, church growth was rapid. (Nauvoo, the Mormon-settling place,
rivaled Chicago in size.) In a divided electorate in Illinois, Mormon influence could be
powerful as it tended to vote as a bloc – even to swinging the national election through
the Electoral College. Joseph Smith’s campaign for the presidency was in full swing.
569
Ibid.
570
Note how the old imagery that there is something secretive and mysterious about
Mormonism – that it is hiding something – goes back to the earliest anti-Mormon
screeds.
280
So, the Mormons may have had greater political significance than their numbers.571
Historian LeGrand Baker argues, “Not only did Americans pay attention to what was
happening in Nauvoo, they also understood the politics of what was happening.”572 The
emotions were charged and heated. One local non-Mormon writing in Warsaw, Illinois,
wrote:
We see no use in attempting to disguise the fact that many in our
midst contemplate a total extermination of that people; that the thousand
defenseless women and children, aged and infirm who are congregated at
Nauvoo, must be driven out, aye, driven scattered like leaves before the
autumn blast! 573
At least 20 papers, including the New York Tribune passed along these remarks.574
Baker, a Mormon, argues that the Warsaw Signal was used not just for agitation, but for
co-ordinating messages and signals that set in motion facets of a detailed conspiracy that
led to the assassination of Joseph Smith.575 In Baker’s telling, Mormon dissenters and
opponents wished to force Joseph Smith into something for which he could be charged
with a crime. With that, he would be forced from Nauvoo to where he might be
assassinated.
Whatever the nature of the conspiracy, the trigger of Smith’s death was the
dissenters’ publication of the Nauvoo Expositor, which published only one issue. The
Expositor accused Mormon leaders of counterfeiting coins and of secret polygamy. It
571
LeGrand Baker, Murder of the Mormon Prophet, The Political Prelude to the Death of
Joseph Smith. (Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2006), Baker quotes James Gordon Bennett
in making this assertion, 228.
572
Baker, Murder of the Mormon Prophet, 209.
573
Thomas Gregg, Warsaw Message, February 1844, as cited in Baker, 159.
574
Ibid.
575
Baker, Murder of the Mormon Prophet, 257.
281
justified potential mob action. The paper promised to be more incendiary in its second
issue. To Baker, it was a deliberate trap. Mormons, who had a mob destroy their
important press in Missouri a decade earlier and were driven from that state, were left
fearful, trapped between allowing continued publication of heated rhetoric, which could
then be used as a justification for mob violence, or to destroy the press as a public
nuisance, which would also justify mob violence or legal action. So, Baker said, the
Nauvoo City Council, with Joseph Smith as mayor ruled, that the press should be
destroyed, which it was.
Sharp responded with incitement:
War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens arise, one and all!!!
Can you stand by, and suffer such infernal devils! to rob men of their
property and rights, without avenging them…. Let [your comment] be
made with powder and ball!!!576
Smith ultimately submitted to state custody in Carthage over the issue and was
shot by a mob while awaiting a hearing there.577 The editor Taylor was gravely
wounded. Scores of American newspapers commented on Smith’s death. He became in
14 years a major national figure, drawing significant attention at every step of the growth
of his unique religious movement.
576
Bushman, Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, 541, quoting Warsaw Signal, June 12,
1844.
577
The destruction of the Expositor remains one of the most controversial episodes in the
history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Former Utah Supreme Court
Justice and current Mormon Apostle Dallin H. Oaks said Mormons arguably acted within
the law, as it was understood then. The 1st Amendment prohibits Congress from making a
law against freedom of the press, not the states. Arguments going back to Blackstone
said that the press could be destroyed as a nuisance. Indeed, these were the issues not
fully adjudicated in America until eight decades later in the 5-4 Near v. Minnesota case.
See Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor.” Utah Law Review 9,
(Winter 1965) :862-903; Baker, 386-396.
282
Chiung Wang Chen, who looked at Mormons and the model minority discourse,
and the University of Richmond’s Professor of Literature and Religion Terryl Givens,
also a leading scholar of Mormon portrayals in the 19th Century, note that the rise of
Mormonism corresponds with the rise of the Penny Press in America.578 This caused
problems for Mormonism because the press was more sensational in that era, and a new,
growing religion certainly was easy to make into a sensation. But Mormonism may have
benefited by the new press of the era -- because of the attention it received.579
The Brigham Young and polygamy era.
As bad as coverage was during the Smith era, it became more painful for
Mormons during the Brigham Young and polygamy era. Early in the era, however, one
outsider, a writer, genius at public relations, and eventual Gettysburg hero, Thomas L.
Kane, helped preserve the faith as it struggled across Iowa and the Great Plains and into
Utah through a series of carefully calculated letters to influential newspapers and
meetings with influential politicians.580 Kane, a young lawyer active in the Underground
Railroad and a student of Comte, heard of Mormon travail during a Philadelphia
presentation in 1846. He took it on himself to advocate their cause, using his political
connections. He famously visited Nauvoo shortly after the Mormons left and provided
detailed accounts of their sufferings to the Pennsylvania Historical Society in an 1850
578
In one way, the press influenced the explication of Mormon doctrine. John
Wentworth, a leading Illinois editor, asked for Smith to write a letter about his church. In
it, Smith explained 13 Articles of Faith that today are part of Mormon scripture.
579
Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 97-102
580
Many cite the beginning of American public relations to Ivy Lee in the late 19th
century and early 20th, but it can easily be argued that Thomas Kane – and the Mormons
of this era – pioneered many techniques first. Kane owned no newspaper to voice his
opinion. Instead, he wrote letters, politicked, gave influential speeches in his effort to
“manufacture public opinion.”
283
speech. In the speech, Kane described coming across a beautiful city that once had
20,000 people with a gleaming temple at the center and verdant farms, all abandoned.
Then he talked of finding struggling stragglers suffering in camps on the Iowa side of the
river:
They were, all told, not more than six hundred and forty persons
who were thus lying on the river flats. But the Mormons in Nauvoo and
its dependencies had been numbered the year before at over twenty
thousand. Where were they? They had last been seen, carrying in
mournful trains their sick and wounded, halt and blind, to disappear
behind the western horizon, pursuing the phantom of another home.
Hardly anything else was known of them: and people asked with
curiosity, What had been their fate-what their fortunes?581
The most important article he helped produced may have been a front-page story
in The New York Tribune in December 1846. Horace Greeley printed a long article
called “The Mormons—Their persecutions, sufferings and deprivation.” Kane regularly
pushed numerous important news articles in eastern papers over this five-year period
though his letters and contacts, helping secure Brigham Young’s appointment as
territorial governor, helping Mormons acquire funds, and helping them with issues
involving land. Kane’s speech became the basis of a pamphlet that circulated widely and
influentially, including among members of Congress and among important members of
the press.582
581
Thomas L. Kane, “The Mormons, A Discourse Delivered Before the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania, March 26, 1850.” Accessed through Google books at
http://books.google.com/books?id=M9XOJvkEM6AC&dq=March+1850+Historical+Soc
iety+of+Pennsylvania&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=DGRjme1l_Q&sig=n0exaY
hJorKXyIDoFzdWiHzMOQI&hl=en&ei=qiSjSauALIKqsAPQz4jZCQ&sa=X&oi=book
_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP1,M1, accessed February 3, 2010.
582
Mark M. Sawin,“A Sentinal for the Saints: Thomas Leipner Kane and the Mormon
Migration,” Nauvoo Journal, 10:1, (Spring 1998), 17-27, at
284
However, Kane’s persuasiveness fell from favor in 1852 when the church
announced publicly that it practiced polygamy. Kane had assured papers newspapers that
polygamy wasn’t happening. And with the announcement, scorn grew on the Latter-day
Saints.583 So, with the services of Kane no longer of effective use, the church decided to
speak out more directly. The church sent prominent leaders to San Francisco, St. Louis,
Washington and New York City to publish newspapers responding to the press of the
day. Much as Smith before him, Brigham Young understood the potential power of the
press and wished to harness it as much as possible. He wrote, “The press is a powerful
lever or agency through which the Lord can reach the minds of the people.” 584
Orson Pratt went to Washington and printed a monthly called The Seer. The
publication contained long religious and philosophical explanations of Mormon doctrine,
especially polygamy and the doctrine of pre-existence – and raised the profile of Pratt and
the church.585 Taylor’s nephew George Q. Cannon went to San Francisco and published
http://www.mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/publications/nj_spring1998/NJ10.1_Sawi
n.pdf, accessed February 3, 2010.
583
Kane’s efforts to help the Mormons didn’t end there. In 1857, James Buchanan sent
troops west to quell a rebellion he perceived brewing in Utah. Kane made the trip to
Utah – again suffering illness along the way and met with military and civilian
authorities, paving the way for a peaceful resolution to a crisis that seemed to have
promised war. Mormons repaid their thanks to Kane by naming a county for him in Utah
and by erecting a statue of him in the state capitol. Kane served admirably despite illness
and injury through the first two years of the Civil War, including a significant defense of
Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg. His heroism was rewarded by being commissioned a major
general. See Sawin, “A Sentinal for the Saints,” and the summary of his life at
wikipedia’s well-sourced entry on Kane.
584
Davis Bitton, George Q. Cannon, A Biography, 1999, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Company, 1999), 75.
585
Breck England, The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt. (Salt Lake City: University of
Utah Press, 1985), 178-179.
285
The Western Standard as a way to combat prejudice there.586 Erastus Snow went to St.
Louis and published the Luminary.587
Taylor, the editor injured at Joseph Smith’s death and arguably the father of
Mormon journalism, produced work that may have been the most memorable. He went to
New York to publish among the titans of the American penny press. Still carrying a bullet
in his body received during Smith’s assassination, Taylor set up his headquarters on the
corner of Nassau and Anne streets between the headquarters of the New York Tribune and
the New York Herald in 1854. He adopted what had been a slur for his newspaper’s title,
the Mormon, and began publishing in February 1855.588
586
Bitton, George Q. Cannon, A Biography, 75-92. Cannon, a powerful, “pugnacious”
editor, once took over publication of the Deseret News in Utah while its offices were on
the run from federal forces in the Utah War.
587
Andrew Karl Larson, Erastus Snow: The Life of a Missionary and Pioneer for the
Early Mormon Church. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1971), 357-373.
588
B. H. Roberts, Life of John Taylor, First Collector’s Edition Printing, 1989, (Salt Lake
City: Bookcraft, Inc., original issue, 1963), 243-247. Taylor was direct, specific and
used American principles of freedom of religion and tolerance to create a counter image
to the image of religious debauchery so often tied in with Mormon polygamy. He noted
the similarity of ethnic heritage among Mormons and Protestants and shared a love for
country. He reminded his readers that Mormons were victims of persecution for religious
freedom and that their attackers were hypocrites. In many ways, his rhetoric and
argument portends John F. Kennedy’s arguments in1960. He tried to make the argument
over Mormonism into an argument about bigotry and religious freedom
Taylor traded barbs with the great editors, Horace Greeley and James Gordon
Bennett and others for more than two years. He directly defended polygamy in the first
issue and wrote:
We are Mormon, inside and outside; at home or abroad, in public
and private, everywhere. We are so, however, from principle … because
we believe it to be true.” (All quotations from this footnote come from
Roberts, Life of John Taylor.)
At times, he could be combative:
We have said before and say now, that we defy all the editors and
writers in the United States to prove that Mormonism is less moral,
286
Willard Richards, another survivor of the murder of Joseph Smith, helped found
the Deseret News in 1850 in Salt Lake City. The first LDS printer, W.W. Phelps,
scriptural, philosophical, or that there is less patriotism in Utah than in any
other part of the United States. We call for proof; bring on your reasons,
gentlemen, if you have any … If you don’t do it … we shall brand you as
poor, mean, cowardly liars.
Sometimes he reminded his readers of their shared ancestry:
You forgot you were talking to Americans, born upon the soil of
freedom, suckled in liberty, who have inhaled it from their fathers’ lips—
their ears yet tingling with the tales of a nation’s birth—sons of fathers
who fought for rights which you, in your bigotry and self-conceit, would
fain wrench from them.
He criticized the editors who, in his view, seemed to be rejoicing in the suffering
of Mormons who faced drought in 1855, but none offered to send food aid. When the
New York Sun said it would respond to a request for aid, if one were given, despite the
evils of the Mormon system, Taylor wrote:
And shall they now ask charity of those that robbed and despoiled
them of their goods and murdered their best men? We have been robbed of
millions and driven from our own firesides into the cold wintry blasts of
the desert, to starve by your charitable institutions, and shall we now crave
your paltry sixpences. Talk to us with your hypocritical cant about
charity! Pshaw!
In one memorable moment, the Herald suggested with seeming seriousness that
handsome soldiers sent to Utah could woo polygamous wives away from their husbands,
thereby restoring monogamy to the territory:
Taylor responded by saying that in an effort to reclaim Utah and its Mormons,
they would, in theory, be brought back to:
The monogamous Christianity, and be brought back to the standard
of one wife apiece—and as many misses or fast young women as suits our
convenience, that a deadly blow may be struck at the virtue of Utah: and
that she may be crowded with voluptuaries, and prostitutes like all other
good Christian states and cities … And all this glory is to be achieved by
the gallant officers and soldiers of our army, under the auspices and
direction of James Gordon Bennett.
Taylor became the third president of the Church, following the death of Brigham
Young. He died in 1887 in hiding from government authorities trying to imprison him
for practicing polygamy.
287
purchased a press in Boston and transported it by boat up the Missouri River and then by
wagon to Salt Lake City. The News is the longest-running newspaper west of the
Mississippi.589
Other journalistic high points during this period included Horace Greeley’s 1859
visit to Salt Lake City and his long interview with Brigham Young, which may have been
the highest-selling New York Tribune to that point and also marked “the first full-fledged
modern interview with a well-known public figure.”590 Also, the New York Herald
devoted extensive coverage to a debate between Pratt and President Ulysses S. Grant’s
personal pastor.591
The seminal study of late -19th Century and early 20th Century portrayals of
Mormonism in the American Press was IUPUI professor Jan Shipps’ 1973 paper, “From
Satyr to Saint.” In it, Shipps looked at nearly 800 articles from a wide variety of national
publications written between 1860 to 1960 to see how coverage changed over time.
Among her many findings was that the largest concern of national writers about the faith
in this mid-1800s era was, not surprisingly, Mormon polygamy. The second was
Mormon political influence.592
Chiung Hwang Chen’s qualitative evaluation created two pictures of Mormonism
during the era: the polygamous Mormon and the dangerous Mormon. The polygamous
589
Will Bagley, “Birthday News, News Celebrates Sesquicentennial LDS Church-owned
paper reflects history of the West; first issue predates Utah, Deseret News Celebrates
Sesquicentennial,” The Salt Lake Tribune, June 15, 2000, A1, at
http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/history_matters/061500-2.html, accessed
May 12, 2007.
590
Leonard Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses. (New York: Knopf, 1986), 3-6.
591
Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 1982), 214.
592
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint.”
288
Mormon was a sexual letch who attracted women out to Salt Lake City. The dangerous
Mormon centered on a militant, Wild West stereotype. The Mormons sent “avenging
angels” to strike at those who opposed them, within and without. Many of those were
“Danites,” a short-lived group of zealots who tried to impose orthodoxy without official
sanction.593 While the tone of coverage was somewhat more positive in the 1860s from
earlier days, given Utah’s support for the Union in the Civil War and the construction of
the transcontinental railroad, it gradually worsened through the next two decades. Shipps
said her sample of this late century era was so uniformly negative, 85 percent negative,
that she catalogued neutral stories as positive to Mormons.594
Historian Matthew Grow says that only the North American Review allowed
Mormons a large opportunity to respond at all in the national press. The church did so in
14 articles published in the magazine over the course of 26 years. Mormon writers
included Taylor and Cannon. The writings “demonstrate that Mormons also vigorously
contested the imposed image, not only in publications meant for fellow Saints, but also
through the national media.”595 (Grow argues that the writings in the Review a framework
for current church public relations efforts – balancing that old tension between Mormon
distinctiveness with sameness to the rest of the country.)596 Numerous magazines, from
593
Chen, Mormon and Asian American Model Minority Discourse.
594
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 62-66. Things were so bad for the Mormons that in
1870, New Hampshire Sen. Aaron Harrison Cragin said on the U.S. Senate floor without
irony or censure that, “It is said that an altar of sacrifice was actually built … in the
temple block, upon which human sacrifices were to be made.” See Givens, The Viper on
the Hearth, 13.
595
Matthew J. Grow, “Contesting the LDS Image,” The Journal of Mormon History,” 32.
no. 2, (Summer 2006), 113.
596
Ibid., 138.
289
Puck to Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, published cartoons of Mormons, casting the
faith in unflattering light. At least one showed Brigham Young wearing horns.597
Givens, a Mormon whose 1997 book on the Mormon image in American history
and literature is an important contribution, has shown that dime novels and other popular
press were also extremely hostile to Mormons. Authors using negative portrayals of
Mormons included Zane Grey, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Jack London.598
These popular images often revolved around the Danites and Mormon polygamy.
Mormon historian Leonard Arrington argues that Twain, Artemus Ward and Arthur
Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes all were started on their epic careers or made famous
because of anti-Mormonism to one degree or another.599
597
Chen, Mormon and Asian American Model Minority Discourse, see figures included
between pages 140 and 141.
598
See Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 133-135, Perhaps, the most famous of the time
was Mark Twain’s humorous, but dismissive, approach to the Church’s practice of
polygamy in Roughing It. He had advocated reform in Utah, he said, but then he “Saw
the Mormon women. Then I was touched. … And as I turned to hide the generous
moisture in my eyes, I said, ‘No, – the man that marries one of them has done an act of
Christian charity … and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of openhanded generosity so sublime that the nations of the earth should stand uncovered in his
presence and worship in silence.’” (Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 137, citing Mark
Twain, Roughing It, 101).
599
Leonard J. Arrington,“The Marrow in the Bones of History,” Reflections of a Mormon
Historian, Leonard J. Arrington on the New Mormon History, ed. Reid Larkin Neilson
and Ronald Walker. (Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark Company, 2006), 291-292.
Arrington cites Mill and Dickens as among those who substantively discussed
Mormonism. Artemus Ward, the humorist, gave a famous lecture about Mormonism
attended by Queen Victoria and the British cabinet. He also says that Propser Merimee,
who wrote the story upon which Carmen is based, introduced Mormons to French
audiences, when he wrote for the leading French magazine of the time. He says that what
has been called the country’s first great western novel, John Brent, was an anti-Mormon
tome. Zane Grey’s two most successful novels, Heritage of the Desert and Riders of the
Purple Sage, may be seen as both anti-Mormon at root.
290
Media and religion scholar Mark Silk used the Mormon experience in the 19th
century to illustrate what he calls one of the topoi of religion and media.600 Mormon
polygamy was a form of false prophecy, he writes. Through this “topo” of false
prophecy, journalists and writers show what is outside the mainstream. “A false
prophet,” he writes, “may be portrayed as sincere or hypocritical, but either way, he (or
she) is an affront to the social order.”601 Shipps suggests there is no comparable
experience in American history to a religious group held with such “frenzied disquiet” for
so long. A reason was that Mormons were largely separated from the rest of America by
a “Mountain curtain,” making interpersonal contact rare and providing no counterpoint to
exaggerated accounts of the faith.602
Givens, the expert on the construction of Mormonism in his 1997 book Viper on
the Hearth, shows that by exaggeration and focus on a relatively few doctrines, which
distorted Mormon beliefs, Mormons became constructed as the embodiment of a new
Islam, if not a new race. There were many examples. One study in 1912 was called
Mormonism: The Islam of America. In a popular comic spoof, Thompson Dunbar, its
author calls Mormonism “Orientalism in the Extreme Occident.”603 There are many
reasons for this comparison to Islam: First is polygamy. From the earliest days, direct
comparisons to Mormon polygamy and its echo of the Middle Eastern harem were
common. With that portrayal comes the notion of danger – of seduction and domination.
The New York Herald, to take one example of many, called Mormons “Turks of the
600
Silk, Unsecular Media, 50.
601
Ibid., 91.
602
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 52.
603
Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 130.
291
desert.”604 Second is the idea of Mormonism and Islam both have a prophet after Jesus
Christ with new scripture. A third reason for the comparison between early Mormonism
and Islam was militancy. By evoking a history of terrorism and bloodshed in the West’s
encounters with Islam, Mormons were often portrayed as dangerous villains that
emphasized the story of the Danites.605 In fiction, as has been shown, the Danites became
a dominant portrayal of Mormons as a secret, vigilante arm of justice within the church.
Implied in all of this vision of Mormons as Muslims is the memory of the historic
conflict, and historic representations, involving Islam and the Christian world. Mormons,
being framed as Muslims, can be seen as unchristian, as deeply fundamentalist, and as
militant, led by despotic men bent on power, especially over women. This portrayal of
Islam, as unfair or inaccurate as it may be, also made Mormonism appear extreme and
dangerous.606
Indeed, so often did the press, both fictional and otherwise, portray Mormons as
Oriental that in many instances, Mormons became a quasi-race.607 Givens quotes
documents of early Missourians who called Mormons “elevated … but little above the
condition of our blacks.” He quotes a Jack London short story where a character, facing
604
Roberts, 261; Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 88
605
Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, 349-353; Chen, “Those Amazing Mormons,” 30;
Echoes of this coverage seem to still play out in stories and headlines. See Julian
Borger’s article in The Guardian called “The March of the Mormons” in December 2007.
606
Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 130-152.
607
In fairness, other scholars note the deliberate choices Mormons made in Utah to
distance themselves from the world, creating in themselves a new kind of ethnicity and
culture. See, for example, Dean L. May, “Mormons,” in Mormons and Mormonism: An
Introduction to an American World Religion, ed. Eric Eliason. (Urbana, Illinois:
University of Illinois Press, 2001), 47-75.
292
Mormon terror, says, “They ain’t whites … They’re Mormons.”608 One 1861 study
looking at Mormon polygamy suggested a new racial type due to the practice:
There is … an expression of countenance and a style of feature,
which may be styled the Mormon expression and style; and expression
compounded of sensuality, cunning, suspicion, and a smirking self-deceit.
The Yellow, sunken, cadaverous visage; the greenish-colored eyes; the
thick, protuberant lips; the low forehead; the light, yellowish hair, and the
lank, angular person, constitute an appearance so characteristic of the new
race, the production of polygamy, as to distinguish them at a glance. 609
In 1911, Alfred Henry Lewis wrote his Cosmopolitan articles that Mormonism is
a moral menace that “threatens the whiteness of American womanhood.” 610
The post-polygamy, early 20th century era
Shipps writes that there was a gradual upsurge in favorable tone starting around
1885, especially marked by the official renunciation of polygamy in 1890.611 But
negative attitudes predominated through the end of World War I.
For example, Mormon scholar Richard Holzapfel showed that Mormons were
almost always negatively framed in 1904.612 Furthermore, Shinji Takagi showed such
coverage wasn’t limited to the United States. He writes that the arrival of Mormon
missionaries in Japan in 1901 resulted in extensive, often negative coverage. About 40
percent of the publications in Japan covered the arrival of the Mormon missionaries.613
608
Givens, Viper on the Hearth, 137.
609
Givens, Viper on the Hearth, 135-138.
610
Lewis, 833.
611
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 51-97
612
Richard Heitzel Holzapfel, “Stereographs and Stereotypes: A 1904 View of
Mormons,” Journal of Mormon History, 18 no. 2 (Fall 1992), 155-76.
613
Shinji Takagi, “Mormons in the Press: Reactions to the 1901 Opening of the Japan
Mission.” BYU Studies, 40, no 1 (2001):141-75, at
293
Shipps’ analysis shows that there was a “striking” change in tone in the early-post
polygamy period from Mormons as dangerous people – they were sexually debauched
and threatening individually – to Mormonism itself as a dangerous system. She adds, that
the number of references to polygamy actually grew in the press following the Church’s
decision to stop polygamy. “There can be little doubt,” she writes, “that in the first two
decades of the twentieth century, polygamy really was a convenient excuse to strike not
merely at the influence of Mormon leaders but also at Mormonism as a religious
system.”614 However, coverage of Utah Mormon units during the Spanish-American war
in Harper’s Magazine and other places did provide Mormons some positive coverage
during this era.615
So controversial did Mormons in America remain that in 1903, Reed Smoot, the
first Mormon to be elected to the United States Senate, faced four years of hearings and
intense media scrutiny before he was allowed to take his seat in Congress. Vanderbilt
historian and theologian Kathleen Flake, a Mormon, said the case did much to shape
public perceptions of Mormons and how the country can negotiate the parameters of
religion in a larger society:
The public participated actively in the proceedings. In the
Capitol, spectators lined the halls, waiting for limited seats in the
committee room, and filled the galleries to hear floor debates. For those
who could not see for themselves, journalists and cartoonists depicted
each day’s admission and outrage. At the height of the hearing some
senators were receiving a thousand letters a day from angry
http://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFLibrary/40.1Takagi%200832b2ed-d155-4322-93ae947765834315.pdf, accessed February 3, 2010, 162.
614
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 52.
615
Harper’s Weekly, “Mormons at Manila,” 1899, 03/25 pp.2997 ab.
294
constituents. What remains of these public petitions fills eleven feet of
shelf space, the largest such collection in the National Archives.616
In 1910 and 1911, prominent magazines, including McClure’s and Collier’s,
published exposes about the church, part of the on-going muckraker era. Cosmopolitan’s
three-part expose compared Mormonism to poisonous snakes, most famously, as “A
Viper on the Hearth.”617 Alfred Henry Lewis wrote that the Mormons through their
business empire could take over the United States in a few decades – their business
interests were secret with hidden agendas and, therefore, dangerous in a vaguely antiSemitic way. Images in the magazine portrayed then church president Joseph F. Smith
(founder Joseph Smith’s nephew) in kingly robes taking obeisance from those holding
much of the nation’s money. Lewis wrote, “Wall and Broad Street can be brought to
their knees at a word from prophet Smith.” Lewis advocated destruction of Mormons:
Take my last warning. You as a good American should watch
narrowly the Mormon Church. It is a national cancer and if you would
have the nation live, you must set about its cure.618
Negative portrayals of the Saints also appeared in movies during that era. Cecil
B. DeMille’s early epic A Mormon Maid in 1917 was an example, as well as Riders of the
Purple Sage, The Danites, Rainbow Trail, Mountain Meadows Massacre, A Trip to Salt
Lake City, Hand Up and A Victim of the Mormons. Many of these movies had Danites as
616
Kathleen Flake, The Politics of American Religious Identity, The Seating of Apostle
Reed Smoot. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004). Introduction at
http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/flake_politics.html, accessed May 12, 2007.
617
Givens, The Viper on the Hearth, 6.
618
Alfred Henry Lewis, “The Viper’s Trail of Gold.” Cosmopolitan, April 1911, 823833.
295
the evil villains though some were satires. In 1915, Jerome Kern produced a full-length
Broadway Musical, The Girl from Utah, which also featured Mormons as villains.619
Perhaps the most famous of these movies was in England in the early 1920s.
BYU film researcher and film curator James D’Arc noted the impact in England of two
pieces of related popular culture, the book The Love Story of a Mormon by popular author
Winifred Graham, and a movie based on it Trapped by the Mormons. Ezra Taft Benson,
the former agriculture secretary and eventual Mormon Church President, was forced to
move from his house in England during a mission because of the feelings the movie
engendered, and Mormon missionaries were banned from the country for a time.620
D’Arc’s discussion of the 1922 movie Trapped by the Mormons led to his literary
analysis that Mormon missionaries in popular fiction were something like stand-ins for
vampires. Trapped by the Mormons portrays a fictional Mormon missionary named
Isoldi Keene with mesmeric eyes, able to immobilize women. Keene faked religious
miracles, and his influence transformed women into different, zombie-like people. The
movie, cartoonishly melodramatic to 21st century sensibilities with close-ups on Keene’s
dangerous, hypnotic eyes, portrays Mormons with a hidden agenda – to take daughters
away to servitude and sexual slavery. It was influential in shaping British public opinion
against Mormons.621
D’arc argues that Winifred Graham, the woman whose popular novel formed the
basis for the movie, was deliberate in her choices. Graham lectured widely against
619
Chen, Mormon and Asian American Model Minority Discourse, 63-64.
620
James V. D’Arc, “The Mormon as Vampire: A Comparative Study of Winifred
Graham’s The Love Story of a Mormon, the film Trapped by the Mormons, and Bram
Stoker’s Dracula.” BYU Studies, Vol. 46, No. 2, (2007), 174.
621
D’Arc, “The Mormon as Vampire,” 174.
296
Mormonism and became aligned with people who studied vampirism. She relied on
many stories from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to create the character of Keene, D’Arc said.
For example, Dracula and Keene are from mysterious, faraway lands; both have
mesmeric powers; both use the “Kiss of Death” or something similar to alter their
victims; both are polygamous predators; both offer a form of eternal life; and both are
defeated by Christian symbols or teaching.622
D’Arc writes,
Trapped by the Mormons is an astonishingly revealing cultural
expression of an era as well as a movement. … Guilt by association rarely
had it so good as when, in the England of the early twentieth century, the
Mormons and vampires, to many, appeared to be one.623
When Mormons are called plastic or robotic, and they sometimes are, it can seem
an ugly echo of this old portrayal of vampirism.624
The “Golden Age.”
Shipps says it was the development of the church’s successful welfare program in
the 1930s that began to mark the biggest change in Mormon coverage, such that by 1970,
Mormons were seen as the most patriotic, self-reliant of Americans. Between 1935 and
1960, the coverage of Mormons in the United States became almost uniformly positive,
save a period in the 1940s when raids were conducted on polygamist communities –
622
Ibid., 175-181.
623
Ibid., 181-182.
624
See, for example, Kelly Jane Torrance, “Redford wants ‘Lion’ to provoke debate,”
The Washington Times, November 8, 2007, at
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/ENTERTAINMENT/
111080103/1001&template=printart, accessed December 7, 2007. This is a very esoteric
point, but insofar as Mormons were sort of stand-ins for vampires, it is ironic that it was a
Mormon, author Stephanie Meyer, who rehabilitated the vampire image in the 2000s with
her Twilight saga.
297
break-offs of the Mormon Church. There was little emphasis on how Mormonism differs
from other branches of Christianity. “At this point, the important thing was not what the
Mormons believed, but the fact they believed it sincerely,” Shipps writes.625
Silk, as noted elsewhere, says this positive tone of coverage was typical of most
coverage of religion generally during that period -- religious differences were lessened
and the focus was on their good works and the underlying assumption that religion was a
good thing. He quoted a 1975 dissertation by that suggested that the newspapers became
a “major vehicle for the maintenance of American religious consensus.”626 So, trying to
explain the change in coverage of Mormonism may not come from looking at changes in
Mormonism’s relationship to the rest of the country but in the dynamics of the country at
the time. It was a Cold War era and unity of purpose was an important value to the
country.
Some important examples of this Golden Age of coverage came from popular
magazines. In the 1950s, Coronet magazine ran an article called, “Those Amazing
Mormons.” Readers Digest ran an article called, “The Mormons: A Complete Way of
Life.” These magazines reached a huge circulation and shaped the Mormon image to
being a “Saint.”627 Mormon portrayals in movies changed significantly as well. Tyrone
625
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 72; 68-73.
626
Silk, Unsecular Media, 25-28.
627
Shipps, “From Satyr to Saint,” 69. These articles may have had profound influences
on Mormonism itself. One of leading pioneers of church membership in West Africa
came into contact with the faith through an article in Reader’s Digest. The church has
seen rapid growth there since. For an account of this, see
http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/homepage2.html, accessed February 3,
2010.
298
Power’s epic, Brigham Young, romantically portrayed the sufferings of Mormons and
was well received in Salt Lake City.628
The post-golden era.
The coverage of Mormonism in the 1960s marked the end of the Golden Era,
corresponding roughly and, perhaps not coincidentally, to the campaign of George
Romney.629 However, Shipps says that the Mormon image seemed positive until the late
‘70s. Even issues of race and gender discrimination, stories from the late ‘60s and early
‘70s seemed to go by the wayside, but new, negative portrayals began to emerge,
including several critical segments on 60 minutes. These stories seemed to focus in
renewed ways on Mormon doctrine, she wrote. New articles about polygamy in the 1970s
were produced that didn’t distinguish the modern church’s anti-polygamy stance from
small break-off sects who embraced the polygamy to the point of murder. Negative
attacks on the church on doctrinal grounds emerged with a movie called The Godmakers,
which was shown at many non-Mormon churches around the country. This film
portrayed a negative, cartoonish version of Latter-day Saints and may have shaped
evangelical perceptions of Mormonism to this day.630
In the 1980s, several new, negative books emerged that received significant
coverage. Mark Hoffmann, a skillful forger of seemingly historic Mormon documents
received enormous coverage, first when some of his forgeries seemed to question the
628
Randy Astle, R., and Gideon O. Burton, “A History of Mormon Cinema.” BYU
Studies, 46:2 (2007), 12-163.
629
This is largely conjecture as yet. No one has studied to see if the Romney campaign
of 1967-1968 marked a change of some sort, seeing as how the campaign, like his son’s,
brought the faith into renewed focus. It does seem likely, however. For a fuller
discussion of the media coverage of the George Romney campaign, see Appendix I.
630
Shipps, “Surveying the Mormon Image Since 1960,” 103.
299
validity of early stories of Mormonism, and, later, when he murdered two people in a
bizarre set of Salt Lake City bombings designed to cover his tracks. The national
reporting on the case, Shipps said, “contained an astonishing amount of innuendo
associating Hofmann’s plagiarism with Mormon beginnings.” These stories focused on
alleged secrecy among leaders and on how Mormons are uniquely vulnerable to conartists.631
In the 1990s, Shipps writes, Mormonism as discussed in the media turned to more
of a discussion of doctrine and belief than of devout piety. With ongoing growth in the
church, more probing will happen, she said. Mormonism’s distinctive beliefs, she says,
“are bound to receive increased scrutiny.”632 This prediction came true in the Romney
coverage. In the intervening years since Shipps’ second study, the largest single news
event about Mormonism before the Romney campaign was the 2002 Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City. The Olympics made the national press uniquely attuned to Mormonism,
setting the stage for the coverage of Mitt Romney’s campaign.633
In this long period of more positive media coverage, the church has continued to
provide its own voice. Its public affairs office is professional and respected. The efforts
include the longest-running network broadcast on television, the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir. Mormons have made important contributions to media in the modern era as well.
Bonneville International is one of the nation’s leading media conglomerates, owned by
the church. It runs 25 radio stations, a TV station and other media enterprises, including
631
Ibid., 105-108.
632
Ibid., 115; 98-123.
633
Chiung Hwang Chen, “Molympics: Journalistic Discourse of Mormons in Relation to
the 2002 Winter Olympic Games,” Journal of Media and Religion, 2 no. 1 (2003): 29-47.
300
satellite services.634 Two, investigative reporter Jack Anderson and The Washington
Post’s former editorial writer Merlo Pusey, have won Pulitzer Prizes for their work. The
Deseret News has won one Pulitzer. Rosel Hyde was the longest-serving member of the
Federal Communications Commission, twice serving as chairman. Philo T. Farnsworth,
a Mormon born in Utah and reared in Idaho, was a leading developer of television.
634
Bonneville International Corporation. under About Bonneville, at
http://www.bonneville.com/?nid=2, accessed February 3, 2010.
301
Appendix K: Mormon Beliefs
What is the essence of Mormonism? Part of the confusion surrounding
Mormonism is that its beliefs are broad with a wider scriptural canon than most Christian
religions have, mixed with a rich set of histories and story traditions. Taken out of
context, bit by bit, as the non-Mormon scholar Jan Shipps says, Mormonism can sound
strange but together can be quite beautiful.635 Mormonism ultimately answers questions
about the purpose of living and about the destiny of man. Yet journalists don’t have hours
to explain a complete picture and need to understand a central essence of the faith.
The Church itself produces massive resources to do that, including some directed
just for reporters at newsroom.lds.org.636 The central essence of the faith is that Mormons
believe in the divinity and role of Jesus Christ as savior of the world. His sacrifice pays
the price of sin. But in that, there is little departure from other religions in the Christian
family, so that simple statement somehow misses a large part of the essence of
Mormonism because it doesn’t bring anything that sets Mormonism apart. In their first
formalized missionary presentation, a central idea of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is that it is a restoration of the gospel and authority of Jesus Christ as taught
and administered by Jesus himself.637
In the first lesson, missionaries point out there is a need for God to reveal his will
to prophets on earth so people can know how to be happy. These are prophets like Moses
and Elijah. Jesus Christ came, taught his gospel, and established his church with 12
apostles and the authority to lead the church. After Jesus died, the apostles and early
635
Luo, “Crucial test for Romney in speech.”
636
See http://newsroom.lds.org/topic/core-beliefs
637
See Preach My Gospel, chapter 3, section 1
302
saints were persecuted and much of what Christ taught was lost. This Mormons call the
Great Apostasy. The idea that prophets were needed anciently meant a prophet was
needed to restore what was lost through revelation – through god’s power.
The restorer was Joseph Smith. As Joseph Smith tells his story, he was 14,
wondering which of all the churches was correct. While reading the Bible, Smith
encountered a verse in the New Testament that said that people should ask of God if they
lacked wisdom.638 Smith decided to pray and on an early spring morning did so.
The account of his vision is standard in this early missionary presentation:
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of
the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner
appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me
bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose
brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.
One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the
other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!639
This vision was the first of many powerful moments in the life of Smith in this
restoration of what was lost, as he tells the story. Key to this religious restoration was the
Book of Mormon. A few years after his First Vision, Smith prayed in his bed in New
York and had a vision of an angel named Moroni, who said there was a set of Gold Plates
not far from Smith’s house, buried in a hillside.
As missionaries teach it, Smith used those plates to translate an ancient record
through miraculous means – The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon contains the
“fullness of the everlasting gospel,” tells stories of prophets and believers, and records
Christ’s dealings with inhabitants of ancient America – including an account of the visit
of the resurrected Christ to America. The Book of Mormon is canonical scripture to
638
James 1:5.
639
Joseph Smith History 1:16-17.
303
Mormons.640 Later revelations and translations came to Smith in the 1830s that were
published as the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, other Mormon
scriptures.
A role for this dissertation might be said to be to help reporters get it right when it
comes to Mormonism, and if there is one thing that must be said about Mormonism, it is
that the thing that must be understood about the faith is the Book of Mormon is central to
the argument Mormonism makes. Smith called it the keystone of the religion.641 The
Book of Mormon is the evidence that Mormonism presents to the world. If the Book of
Mormon is what Smith said, Mormonism’s central claims about apostasy and prophetic
restoration would be true, Mormons teach. The book, therefore, becomes Mormonism’s
methodology. If the book and its origin story are true, then the religion is true.
Mormonism makes a call to examine the Book of Mormon as evidence. It is with that
evidence that Mormonism links the concrete into the mystical of what its followers call
personal revelation. As the last concept in this introduction to Mormonism, Mormon
missionaries invite interested people to read the Book of Mormon and then ask them to
pray to God to ask whether the book is true. Often, this missionary presentation includes
this verse from the Book of Mormon:
“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask
God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall
ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth
of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”642
640
Introduction to the Book of Mormon.
641
Introduction to the Book of Mormon.
642
Moroni 10:4
304
As Doug Underwood says in From Yahweh to Yahoo!, these kind of mystical
experiences can be difficult for journalists to write about,643 but a key facet of
understanding Mormonism is this idea of personal revelation. According to this study, the
doctrinal essence of Mormonism is: Humans have a loving god with a loving plan.
Christ achieves the plan through his sacrifice. Prophets teach the plan. An apostasy
occurred after Christ died. Through Smith, the full truth was restored. The Book of
Mormon is Mormonism methodology and power as people pray to God to know whether
the Book is true through personal revelation.
Beyond foundational beliefs that make Mormonism distinctive, Mormonism, with
its broad scriptural canon and rich history, provides many threads through which a
Mormon politician might be influenced. The following are some ideas following from an
observation this dissertation makes – that journalists rarely seemed interested in the
question of how Mormon (and by implication most other religious) belief might influence
candidate’s ideas on public policy. Mormonism’s rich history and unusual, broad doctrine
might have informed many articles during the Romney campaign, and they could do so in
the future. This is especially true because Mormons have a broader sense of canon
scripture than many faiths do. Therefore, there are many concepts from which to draw.
It is possible that a practicing Mormon would spend considerable time pondering Book of
Mormon teachings in making their most powerful decisions. For that reason alone,
reporters are justified in thinking about that book and its teachings.
643
Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo!, 249.
305
To be sure, Mormon politicians carry differing approaches to national issues, just
as Catholic politicians do. The point is that in evaluating Mormon politicians, it can be
extremely useful to see what they might believe.
Mormonism and history.
Mormonism’s history includes numerous examples of government persecution
and times where government didn’t listen. They include the anti-polygamy statutes of the
19th century, the Missouri extermination order, the Utah War of 1857, where government
invaded Utah and other similar moments.644 Such moments likely made Mormons deeply
distrustful of government. Is that so for Romney or a Mormon candidate? How or why?
Mormon history also had a deeply communal streak economically. Would a Mormon
politician in the 21st century gravitate toward communal ideas that include helping the
poor?
The Book of Mormon and terrorism.
How might a Mormon respond to terrorism? Would a Mormon candidate be
more likely to negotiate? To invade Iraq? To take a hard or a soft line? The Book of
Mormon645 might be characterized as a story about a nation with 1,000 years of history
condensed into 500 or so pages. One of the history’s themes is “secret combinations”
and the rise of a group that for all intents and purposes appears to be a group of terrorists
– the Gadianton Robbers. The book is uncompromising in its condemnation of these
644
See Our Heritage, at
http://lds.org/gospellibrary/ourheritage/OurHeritage35448000.pdf.
645
An ancillary finding of all the research done in preparation for this study is that
virtually no serious Book of Mormon idea has been discussed in recent years inside the
news media at all.
306
organizations and blames these combinations for the death of two Book of Mormon
civilizations.646
So, it goes to follow that a Mormon politician believing in the Book of Mormon
would take an extremely uncompromising line against terror. If a Mormon were to see
Communism as such a combination, then it follows a Mormon would be strongly antiCommunist. Indeed, a line in the book says the Book of Mormon will come forth in a
day with such secret combinations.647
Yet, there is another view about what to do in the Book of Mormon in response to
war. Two characters – Moroni648 and Lachoneus649 – respond extremely defensively
when confronted with a potential invasion. They wait for the attack to come, rather than
going on the offensive against what they know is coming. Would a Mormon politician,
therefore, be seen as an appeaser and not in favor of offensive operations like Iraq? So,
another reading suggests that the Book of Mormon might have taken a very hard line
against pre-emption.
Some Mormon politicians might also be deeply distrustful of conspiring
corporations – the lead-in to its relatively famous Word of Wisdom says that the
revelation is to protect believers from evil and conspiring men in the last days. Though
this doctrine doesn’t say tobacco companies and alcohol companies and drug gangs, such
might seem implied as a kind of danger to civil society.650
646
Helaman 2:14-15.
647
Ether 8:22-24.
648
Alma 49.
649
3 Nephi 3.
650
D. & C. 89.
307
Mormonism and the environment
Mormonism seems to provide numerous environmental views. One passage of
Mormon scripture literally personifies the world, as it weeps for the wickedness upon it,
suggesting a profound relationship and stewardship to earth, making it a mother to all
people.651 However, another swath of environmental thinking seems overturned by one of
Joseph Smith’s revelations that says, in reference to the Earth, that it is “full and there is
enough and to spare.” There is no sense of Malthusian dystopia there. Would such ideas
make a Mormon politician distrustful of draconian environmental initiatives? Would such
make a Mormon politician more serious in their convictions about protecting and
respecting the planet?
Mormonism and poverty
In the next passage after saying the earth has enough, there seems a pure sense of
social justice saying that if a person doesn’t impart to the poor and the needy, that person
will, with the wicked, “lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.”652 There is also one of
these injunctions toward helping the poor within the Book of Mormon:
Ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and
turn him out to perish.
Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery;
therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart
unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great
cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth
forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
651
The character here is Enoch of the old testament in part of the Mormon Pearl of Great
Price, Moses 7:48.
652
D&C 104:17.
308
For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same
Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment,
and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every
kind?”653
Would such a politician favor strong welfare programs?
Mormonism and America
One of the most intriguing parts of Mormonism – and its relationship to the
mainstream – is what might be called its sense of a divinely inspired constitution. Joseph
Smith’s 101st section of his revelations, the Doctrine and Covenants, written in the midst
of historic persecution, including some meted out by government authorities, includes
this passage of support for the Constitution:
Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.
And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by
the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the
land by the shedding of blood.654
Also, there is the Book of Mormon teaching, speaking of the America – and the
New World -- that this is a land which is “choice above all other lands.”655 What does
that mean for a Mormon politician? Could this create a unique sense of American
exceptionalism? Could it create a devotion to the Constitution that bordered on the
strident?
Part of this intriguing Mormon relationship to America is the quiet sense of tragic
failure that permeates the Book of Mormon – a story of two historical American
653
Mosiah 4:17-19.
654
D & C 101:79-80.
655
1 Nephi 2:20.
309
nations656 that fell from peace, prosperity and grace to self-annihilation, terror and
genocide. So, the book sits unequivocally as a warning. A verse that talks of America
being choice also includes this: “Therefore he that doth possess [this land] shall serve
God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God.”657
This religious teaching – and others like it others like it in other religions -creates a potential dilemma for a Mormon politician. If a Mormon president truly
believed this passage, and held hope for the country, there could be a moral imperative to
warn when he or she saw growing wickedness. Such warnings might make political
office difficult to obtain.658
656
The bulk of the Book of Mormon narrative is about the Nephites – who descend from
one half of a family who arrived in the Americas in about 600 B.C. Their nemesis, the
Lamanites, descended from the other half of the family, and who ultimately slaughter the
Nephite nation in an American genocide. One 15-chapter book in the Book of Mormon
describes a second, earlier nation, the Jaredites, which also commits national suicide
through wickedness. This nation has only two survivors who tell the sad tale of
destruction.
657
Ether 2:10.
658
And what of the supposed Mormon quest to enter the mainstream? Being a voice
crying wickedness to a modern generation, as this passage seems to urge Mormons to do,
is a strange way to do that. The great Mormon apologist Hugh Nibley told Mormon
public relations practitioners in the 1990s that a great problem with Mormonism today is
its lack of willingness to actually tell what it believes – a different kind of criticism.
“Why do we hold back?” he said. See Hugh Nibley, “Mediocre Meditations on the
Media.”
310
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